‘The grand duchess passes by with some ambassador, and, as luck would have it, they begin talking about the new helmets. So the grand duchess wants to show him a new helmet ... They see our dear fellow standing there.’ (Petritsky showed how he was standing there with his helmet.) ‘The grand duchess tells him to hand her the helmet - he won’t do it. What’s the matter? They wink at him, nod, frown. Hand it over. He won’t. He freezes. Can you imagine? ... Then that one ... what’s his name ... wants to take the helmet from him ... he won’t let go! ... He tears it away, hands it to the grand duchess. “Here’s the new helmet,” says the grand duchess. She turns it over and, can you imagine, out of it - bang! - falls a pear and some sweets - two pounds of sweets! ... He had it all stashed away, the dear fellow!’
Vronsky rocked with laughter. And for a long time afterwards, talking about other things, he would go off into his robust laughter, exposing a solid row of strong teeth, when he remembered about the helmet.
Having learned all the news, Vronsky, with the help of his footman, put on his uniform and went to report. After reporting, he intended to call on his brother, then on Betsy, and then to pay several visits, so that he could begin to appear in the society where he might meet Anna. As always in Petersburg, he left home not to return till late at night.
Part Two
I
At the end of winter a consultation took place in the Shcherbatsky home, which was to decide on the state of Kitty’s health and what must be undertaken to restore her failing strength. She was ill, and as spring approached her health was growing worse. The family doctor gave her cod-liver oil, then iron, then common caustic, but as neither the one nor the other nor the third was of any help, and as he advised going abroad for the spring, a famous doctor was called in. The famous doctor, not yet old and quite a handsome man, asked to examine the patient. With particular pleasure, it seemed, he insisted that maidenly modesty was merely a relic of barbarism and that nothing was more natural than for a not-yet-old man to palpate a naked young girl. He found it natural because he did it every day and never, as it seemed to him, felt or thought anything bad, and therefore he regarded modesty in a girl not only as a relic of barbarism but also as an affront to himself.
They had to submit, because, though all doctors studied in the same school, from the same books, and knew the same science, and though some said that this famous doctor was a bad doctor, in the princess’s home and in her circle it was for some reason acknowledged that he alone knew something special and he alone could save Kitty. After a careful examination and sounding of the patient, who was bewildered and stunned with shame, the famous doctor, having diligently washed his hands, was standing in the drawing room and talking with the prince. The prince frowned and kept coughing as he listened to the doctor. He, as a man who had seen life and was neither stupid nor sick, did not believe in medicine, and in his soul he was angry at this whole comedy, the more so in that he was almost the only one who fully understood the cause of Kitty’s illness. ‘What a gabbler,’ he thought, mentally applying this barnyard term to the famous doctor and listening to his chatter about the symptoms of his daughter’s illness. The doctor meanwhile found it hard to keep from expressing his contempt for the old gentleman and descending to the low level of his understanding. He understood that there was no point in talking with the old man, and that the head of this house was the mother. It was before her that he intended to strew his pearls. Just then the princess came into the drawing room with the family doctor. The prince stepped aside, trying not to show how ridiculous this whole comedy was to him. The princess was bewildered and did not know what to do. She felt herself guilty before Kitty.
‘Well, doctor, decide our fate,’ she said. ‘Tell me everything.’ (‘Is there any hope?’ she wanted to say, but her lips trembled and she could not get the question out.) ‘Well, what is it, doctor? ...’
‘I will presently confer with my colleague, Princess, and then I will have the honour of reporting my opinion to you.’
‘So we should leave you?’
‘As you please.’
The princess sighed and went out.
When the doctors were left alone, the family physician timidly began to present his opinion, according to which there was the start of a tubercular condition, but ... and so forth. The famous doctor listened to him and in the middle of his speech looked at his large gold watch.
‘Indeed,’ he said. ‘But...’
The family physician fell respectfully silent in the middle of his speech.
