Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART ONE CHAPTER 14
“Shall you be long in Moscow? You’re busy with the district council, though,
aren’t you, and can’t be away for long?”
“No, princess, I’m no longer a member of the council,” he said. “I have come up
for a few days.”
“There’s something the matter with him,” thought Countess Nordston, glancing
at his stern, serious face. “He isn’t in his old argumentative mood. But I’ll draw him
out. I do love making a fool of him before Kitty, and I’ll do it.”
“Konstantin Dmitrievitch,” she said to him, “do explain to me, please, what’s the
meaning of it. You know all about such things. At home in our village of Kaluga
all the peasants and all the women have drunk up all they possessed, and now they
can’t pay us any rent. What’s the meaning of that? You always praise the peasants
so.”
At that instant another lady came into the room, and Levin got up.
“Excuse me, countess, but I really know nothing about it, and can’t tell you anything,”
he said, and looked round at the officer who came in behind the lady.
“That must be Vronsky,” thought Levin, and, to be sure of it, glanced at Kitty. She
had already had time to look at Vronsky, and looked round at Levin. And simply
from the look in her eyes, that grew unconsciously brighter, Levin knew that she
loved that man, knew it as surely as if she had told him so in words. But what sort of
a man was he? Now, whether for good or for ill, Levin could not choose but remain;
he must find out what the man was like whom she loved.
There are people who, on meeting a successful rival, no matter in what, are at once
disposed to turn their backs on everything good in him, and to see only what is bad.
There are people, on the other hand, who desire above all to find in that lucky rival
the qualities by which he has outstripped them, and seek with a throbbing ache at
heart only what is good. Levin belonged to the second class. But he had no difficulty
in finding what was good and attractive in Vronsky. It was apparent at the first
glance. Vronsky was a squarely built, dark man, not very tall, with a good-humored,
handsome, and exceedingly calm and resolute face. Everything about his face and
figure, from his short-cropped black hair and freshly shaven chin down to his loosely
fitting, brand-new uniform, was simple and at the same time elegant. Making way
for the lady who had come in, Vronsky went up to the princess and then to Kitty.
As he approached her, his beautiful eyes shone with a specially tender light, and
with a faint, happy, and modestly triumphant smile (so it seemed to Levin), bowing
carefully and respectfully over her, he held out his small broad hand to her.
Greeting and saying a few words to everyone, he sat down without once glancing
at Levin, who had never taken his eyes off him.
“Let me introduce you,” said the princess, indicating Levin. “Konstantin
Dmitrievitch Levin, Count Alexey Kirillovitch Vronsky.”
Vronsky got up and, looking cordially at Levin, shook hands with him.
“I believe I was to have dined with you this winter,” he said, smiling his simple
and open smile; “but you had unexpectedly left for the country.”
“Konstantin Dmitrievitch despises and hates town and us townspeople,” said
Countess Nordston.
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