Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FIVE CHAPTER 5
Chapter 5
IN the church there was all Moscow, all the friends and relations; and during the
ceremony of plighting troth, in the brilliantly lighted church, there was an incessant
flow of discreetly subdued talk in the circle of gaily dressed women and girls,
and men in white ties, frockcoats, and uniforms. The talk was principally kept up by
the men, while the women were absorbed in watching every detail of the ceremony,
which always means so much to them.
In the little group nearest to the bride were her two sisters: Dolly, and the other
one, the self-possessed beauty, Madame Lvova, who had just arrived from abroad.
“Why is it Marie’s in lilac, as bad as black, at a wedding?” said Madame Korsunskaya.
“With her complexion, it’s the one salvation,” responded Madame Trubetskaya. “I
wonder why they had the wedding in the evening? It’s like shop-people...”
“So much prettier. I was married in the evening too...” answered Madame Korsunskaya,
and she sighed, remembering how charming she had been that day, and
how absurdly in love her husband was, and how different it all was now.
“They say if anyone’s best man more than ten times, he’ll never be married. I
wanted to be for the tenth time, but the post was taken,” said Count Siniavin to the
pretty Princess Tcharskaya, who had designs on him.
Princess Tcharskaya only answered with a smile. She looked at Kitty, thinking
how and when she would stand with Count Siniavin in Kitty’s place, and how she
would remind him then of his joke today.
Shtcherbatsky told the old maid of honor, Madame Nikolaeva, that he meant to
put the crown on Kitty’s chignon for luck.
“She ought not to have worn a chignon,” answered Madame Nikolaeva, who had
long ago made up her mind that if the elderly widower she was angling for married
her, the wedding should be of the simplest. “I don’t like such grandeur.”
Sergey Ivanovitch was talking to Darya Dmitrievna, jestingly assuring her that
the custom of going away after the wedding was becoming common because newly
married people always felt a little ashamed of themselves.
“Your brother may feel proud of himself. She’s a marvel of sweetness. I believe
you’re envious.”
“Oh, I’ve got over that, Darya Dmitrievna,” he answered, and a melancholy and
serious expression suddenly came over his face.
Stepan Arkadyevitch was telling his sister-in-law his joke about divorce.
“The wreath wants setting straight,” she answered, not hearing him.
“What a pity she’s lost her looks so,” Countess Nordston said to Madame Lvova.
“Still he’s not worth her little finger, is he?”
“Oh, I like him so–not because he’s my future beau-frère,” answered Madame
Lvova. “And how well he’s behaving! It’s so difficult, too, to look well in such a
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