Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART THREE CHAPTER 18
Chapter 18
THEY heard the sound of steps and a man’s voice, then a woman’s voice and laughter,
and immediately thereafter there walked in the expected guests: Sappho
Shtoltz, and a young man beaming with excess of health, the so-called Vaska. It was
evident that ample supplies of beefsteak, truffles, and Burgundy never failed to reach
him at the fitting hour. Vaska bowed to the two ladies, and glanced at them, but only
for one second. He walked after Sappho into the drawing-room, and followed her
about as though he were chained to her, keeping his sparkling eyes fixed on her as
though he wanted to eat her. Sappho Shtoltz was a blonde beauty with black eyes.
She walked with smart little steps in high-heeled shoes, and shook hands with the
ladies vigorously like a man.
Anna had never met this new star of fashion, and was struck by her beauty, the
exaggerated extreme to which her dress was carried, and the boldness of her manners.
On her head there was such a superstructure of soft, golden hair–her own and
false mixed–that her head was equal in size to the elegantly rounded bust, of which
so much was exposed in front. The impulsive abruptness of her movements was
such that at every step the lines of her knees and the upper part of her legs were
distinctly marked under her dress, and the question involuntarily rose to the mind
where in the undulating, piled-up mountain of material at the back the real body
of the woman, so small and slender, so naked in front, and so hidden behind and
below, really came to an end.
Betsy made haste to introduce her to Anna.
“Only fancy, we all but ran over two soldiers,” she began telling them at once, using
her eyes, smiling and twitching away her tail, which she flung back at one stroke
all on one side. “I drove here with Vaska.... Ah, to be sure, you don’t know each
other.” And mentioning his surname she introduced the young man, and reddening
a little, broke into a ringing laugh at her mistake–that is, at her having called him
Vaska to a stranger. Vaska bowed once more to Anna, but he said nothing to her.
He addressed Sappho: “You’ve lost your bet. We got here first. Pay up,” said he,
smiling.
Sappho laughed still more festively.
“Not just now,” said she.
“Oh, all right, I’ll have it later.”
“Very well, very well. Oh, yes.” She turned suddenly to Princess Betsy: “I am a
nice person...I positively forgot it... I’ve brought you a visitor. And here he comes.”
The unexpected young visitor, whom Sappho had invited, and whom she had forgotten,
was, however, a personage of such consequence that, in spite of his youth,
both the ladies rose on his entrance.
He was a new admirer of Sappho’s. He now dogged her footsteps, like Vaska.
Soon after Prince Kaluzhsky arrived, and Liza Merkalova with Stremov. Liza
Merkalova was a thin brunette, with an Oriental, languid type of face, and–as everyone
used to say–exquisite enigmatic eyes. The tone of her dark dress (Anna immediately
observed and appreciated the fact) was in perfect harmony with her style
of beauty. Liza was as soft and enervated as Sappho was smart and abrupt.
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