Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FIVE CHAPTER 28
“At last!” she greeted him joyfully. “And Anna? How glad I am! Where are you
stopping? I can fancy after your delightful travels you must find our poor Petersburg
horrid. I can fancy your honeymoon in Rome. How about the divorce? Is that all
over?”
Vronsky noticed that Betsy’s enthusiasm waned when she learned that no divorce
had as yet taken place.
“People will throw stones at me, I know,” she said, “but I shall come and see Anna;
yes, I shall certainly come. You won’t be here long, I suppose?”
And she did certainly come to see Anna the same day, but her tone was not at
all the same as in former days. She unmistakably prided herself on her courage,
and wished Anna to appreciate the fidelity of her friendship. She only stayed ten
minutes, talking of society gossip, and on leaving she said:
“You’ve never told me when the divorce is to be? Supposing I’m ready to fling my
cap over the mill, other starchy people will give you the cold shoulder until you’re
married. And that’s so simple nowadays. `cca se fait. So you’re going on Friday?
Sorry we shan’t see each other again.”
From Betsy’s tone Vronsky might have grasped what he had to expect from the
world; but he made another effort in his own family. His mother he did not reckon
upon. He knew that his mother, who had been so enthusiastic over Anna at their first
acquaintance, would have no mercy on her now for having ruined her son’s career.
But he had more hope of Varya, his brother’s wife. He fancied she would not throw
stones, and would go simply and directly to see Anna, and would receive her in her
own house.
The day after his arrival Vronsky went to her, and finding her alone, expressed his
wishes directly.
“You know, Alexey,” she said after hearing him, “how fond I am of you, and how
ready I am to do anything for you; but I have not spoken, because I knew I could be
of no use to you and to Anna Arkadyevna,” she said, articulating the name “Anna
Arkadyevna” with particular care. “Don’t suppose, please, that I judge her. Never;
perhaps in her place I should have done the same. I don’t and can’t enter into that,”
she said, glancing timidly at his gloomy face. “But one must call things by their
names. You want me to go and see her, to ask her here, and to rehabilitate her in
society; but do understand that I cannot do so. I have daughters growing up, and I
must live in the world for my husband’s sake. Well, I’m ready to come and see Anna
Arkadyevna: she will understand that I can’t ask her here, or I should have to do so
in such a way that she would not meet people who look at things differently; that
would offend her. I can’t raise her...”
“Oh, I don’t regard her as fallen more than hundreds of women you do receive!”
Vronsky interrupted her still more gloomily, and he got up in silence, understanding
that his sister-in-law’s decision was not to be shaken.
“Alexey! don’t be angry with me. Please understand that I’m not to blame,” began
Varya, looking at him with a timid smile.
“I’m not angry with you,” he said still as gloomily; “but I’m sorry in two ways.
I’m sorry, too, that this means breaking up our friendship–if not breaking up, at least
weakening it. You will understand that for me, too, it cannot be otherwise.”
489