Part Six: Chapter 20

by Leo Tolstoy

　　"Here's Dolly for you, princess, you were so anxious to see her,"said Anna, coming out with Darya Alexandrovna onto the stoneterrace where Princess Varvara was sitting in the shade at anembroidery frame, working at a cover for Count AlexeyKirillovitch's easy chair. "She says she doesn't want anythingbefore dinner, but please order some lunch for her, and I'll goand look for Alexey and bring them all in."

　　Princess Varvara gave Dolly a cordial and rather patronizingreception, and began at once explaining to her that she wasliving with Anna because she had always cared more for her thanher sister Katerina Pavlovna, the aunt that had brought Anna up,and that now, when every onehad abandoned Anna, she thought ither duty to help her in this most difficult period of transition.

　　"Her husband will give her a divorce, and then I shall go back tomy solitude; but now I can be of use, and I am doing my duty,however difficult it may be for me--not like some other people.And how sweet it is of you, how right of you to have come! Theylive like the best of married couples; it's for God to judgethem, not for us. And didn't Biryuzovsky and MadameAvenieva...and Sam Nikandrov, and Vassiliev and Madame Mamonova,and Liza Neptunova... Did no one say anything about them? Andit has ended by their being received by everyone. And then,c'est un interieur si joli, si comme il faut. Tout-a-fait al'anglaise. On se reunit le matin au breakfast, et puis on sesepare. Everyone does as he pleases till dinnertime. Dinner atseven o'clock. Stiva did very rightly to send you. He needstheir support. You know that through his mother and brother hecan do anything. And then they do so much good. He didn't tellyou about his hospital? Ce sera admirable--everything fromParis."

　　Their conversation was interrupted by Anna, who had found the menof the party in the billiard room, and returned with them to theterrace. There was still a long time before the dinner-hour, itwas exquisite weather, and so several different methods ofspending the next two hours were proposed. There were very manymethods of passing the time at Vozdvizhenskoe, and these were allunlike those in use at Pokrovskoe.

　　"Une partie de lawn-tennis," Veslovsky proposed, with hishandsome smile. "We'll be partners again, Anna Arkadyevna."

　　"No, it's too hot; better stroll about the garden and have a rowin the boat, show Darya Alexandrovna the river banks." Vronskyproposed.

　　"I agree to anything," said Sviazhsky.

　　"I imagine that what Dolly would like best would be a stroll--wouldn't you? And then the boat, perhaps," said Anna.

　　So it was decided. Veslovsky and Tushkevitch went off to thebathing place, promising to get the boat ready and to wait therefor them.

　　They walked along the path in two couples, Anna with Sviazhsky,and Dolly with Vronsky. Dolly was a little embarrassed andanxious in the new surroundings in which she found herself.Abstractly, theoretically, she did not merely justify, shepositively approved of Anna's conduct. As is indeed notunfrequent with women of unimpeachable virtue, weary of themonotony of respectable existence, at a distance she not onlyexcused illicit love, she positively envied it. Besides, sheloved Anna with all her heart. But seeing Anna in actual lifeamong these strangers, with this fashionable tone that was so newto Darya Alexandrovna, she felt ill at ease. What she dislikedparticularly was seeing Princess Varvara ready to overlookeverything for the sake of the comforts she enjoyed.

　　As a general principle, abstractly, Dolly approved of Anna'saction; but to see the man for whose sake her action had beentaken was disagreeable to her. Moreover, she had never likedVronsky. She thought him very proud, and saw nothing in him ofwhich he could be proud except his wealth. But against her ownwill, here in his own house, he overawed her more than ever, andshe could not be at ease with him. She felt with him the samefeeling she had had with the maid about her dressing jacket.Just as with the maid she had felt not exactly ashamed, butembarrassed at her darns, so she felt with him not exactlyashamed, but embarrassed at herself.

　　Dolly was ill at ease, and tried to find a subject ofconversation. Even though she supposed that, through his pride,praise of his house and garden would be sure to be disagreeableto him, she did all the same tell him how much she liked hishouse.

　　"Yes, it's a very fine building, and in the good old-fashionedstyle," he said.

　　"I like so much the court in front of the steps. Was thatalways so?"

　　"Oh, no!" he said, and his face beamed with pleasure. "If youcould only have seen that court last spring!"

　　And he began, at first rather diffidently, but more and morecarried away by the subject as he went on, to draw her attentionto the various details of the decoration of his house and garden.It was evident that, having devoted a great deal of trouble toimprove and beautify his home, Vronsky felt a need to show offthe improvements to a new person, and was genuinely delighted atDarya Alexandrovna's praise.

　　"If you would care to look at the hospital, and are not tired,indeed, it's not far. Shall we go?" he said, glancing into herface to convince himself that she was not bored. "Are youcoming, Anna?" he turned to her.

　　"We will come, won't we?" she said, addressing Sviazhsky. "Maisil ne faut pas laisser le pauvre Veslovsky et Tushkevitch semorfondre la dans le bateau. We must send and tell them."

　　"Yes, this is a monument he is setting up here," said Anna,turning to Dolly with that sly smile of comprehension with whichshe had previously talked about the hospital.

　　"Oh, it's a work of real importance!" said Sviazhsky. But toshow he was not trying to ingratiate himself with Vronsky, hepromptly added some slightly critical remarks.

　　"I wonder, though, count," he said, "that while you do so muchfor the health of the peasants, you take so little interest inthe schools."

　　"C'est devenu tellement commun les ecoles," said Vronsky. "Youunderstand it's not on that account, but it just happens so, myinterest has been diverted elsewhere. This way then to thehospital," he said to Darya Alexandrovna, pointing to a turningout of the avenue.

　　The ladies put up their parasols and turned into the side path.After going down several turnings, and going through a littlegate, Darya Alexandrovna saw standing on rising ground before hera large pretentious-looking red building, almost finished. Theiron roof, which was not yet painted, shone with dazzlingbrightness in the sunshine. Beside the finished building anotherhad been begun, surrounded by scaffolding. Workmen in aprons,standing on scaffolds, were laying bricks, pouring mortar out ofvats, and smoothing it with trowels.

　　"How quickly work gets done with you!" said Sviazhsky. "When Iwas here last time the roof was not on."

　　"By the autumn it will all be ready. Iside almost everything isdone," said Anna.

　　"And what's this new building?"

　　"That's the house for the doctor and the dispensary," answeredVronsky, seeing the architect in a short jacket coming towardshim; and excusing himself to the ladies, he went to meet him.

　　Going round a hole where the workmen were slaking lime, he stoodstill with the architect and began talking rather warmly.

　　"The front is still too low," he said to Anna, who had asked whatwas the matter.

　　"I said the foundation ought to be raised," said Anna.

　　"Yes, of course it would have been much better, Anna Arkadyevna,"said the architect, "but now it's too late."

　　"Yes, I take a great interest in it," Anna answered Sviazhsky,who was expressing his surprise at her knowledge of architecture."This new building ought to have been in harmony with thehospital. It was an afterthought, and was begun without a plan."

　　Vronsky, having finished his talk with the architect, joined theladies, and led them inside the hospital.

　　Although they were still at work on the cornices outside and werepainting on the ground floor, upstairs almost all the rooms werefinished. Going up the broad cast-iron staircase to the landing,they walked into the first large room. The walls were stuccoedto look like marble, the huge plate-glass windows were alreadyin, only the parquet floor was not yet finished, and thecarpenters, who were planing a block of it, left their work,taking off the bands that fastened their hair, to greet thegentry.

　　"This is the reception room," said Vronsky. "Here there will bea desk, tables, and benches, and nothing more."

　　"This way; let us go in here. Don't go near the window," saidAnna, trying the paint to see if it were dry. "Alexey, thepaint's dry already," she added.

　　From the reception room they went into the corridor. HereVronsky showed them the mechanism for ventilation on a novelsystem. Then he showed them marble baths, and beds withextraordinary springs. Then he showed them the wards one afteranother, the storeroom, the linen room, then the heating stoveof a new pattern, then the trolleys, which would make no noise asthey carried everything needed along the corridors, and manyother things. Sviazhsky, as a connoisseur in the latestmechanical improvements, appreciated everything fully. Dollysimply wondered at all she had not seen before, and, anxious tounderstand it all, made minute inquiries about everything, whichgave Vronsky great satisfaction.

　　"Yes, I imagine that this will be the solitary example of aproperly fitted hospital in Russia," said Sviazhsky.

　　"And won't you have a lying-in ward?" asked Dolly. "That's somuch needed in the country. I have often..."

　　In spite of his usual courtesy, Vronsky interrupted her.

　　"This is not a lying-in home, but a hospital for the sick, and isintended for all diseases, except infectious complaints," hesaid. "Ah! look at this," and he rolled up to Darya Alexandrovnaan invalid chair that had just been ordered for theconvalescents. "Look." He sat down in the chair and beganmoving it. "The patient can't walk--still too weak, perhaps, orsomething wrong with his legs, but he must have air, and hemoves, rolls himself along...."

　　Darya Alexandrovna was interested by everything. She likedeverything very much, but most of all she liked Vronsky himselfwith his natural, simple-hearted eagerness. "Yes, he's a verynice, good man," she thought several times, not hearing what hesaid, but looking at him and penetrating into his expression,while she mentally put herself in Anna's place. She liked him somuch just now with his eager interest that she saw how Anna couldbe in love with him.