Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART SIX CHAPTER 25
Chapter 25
VRONSKY and Anna spent the whole summer and part of the winter in the country,
living in just the same condition, and still taking no steps to obtain a divorce. It
was an understood thing between them that they should not go away anywhere; but
both felt, the longer they lived alone, especially in the autumn, without guests in the
house, that they could not stand this existence, and that they would have to alter it.
Their life was apparently such that nothing better could be desired. They had the
fullest abundance of everything; they had a child, and both had occupation. Anna
devoted just as much care to her appearance when they had no visitors, and she did
a great deal of reading, both of novels and of what serious literature was in fashion.
She ordered all the books that were praised in the foreign papers and reviews
she received, and read them with that concentrated attention which is only given to
what is read in seclusion. Moreover, every subject that was of interest to Vronsky,
she studied in books and special journals, so that he often went straight to her with
questions relating to agriculture or architecture, sometimes even with questions relating
to horse-breeding or sport. He was amazed at her knowledge, her memory,
and at first was disposed to doubt it, to ask for confirmation of her facts; and she
would find what he asked for in some book, and show it to him.
The building of the hospital, too, interested her. She did not merely assist, but
planned and suggested a great deal herself. But her chief thought was still of herself–
how far she was dear to Vronsky, how far she could make up to him for all he had
given up. Vronsky appreciated this desire not only to please, but to serve him, which
had become the sole aim of her existence, but at the same time he wearied of the loving
snares in which she tried to hold him fast. As time went on, and he saw himself
more and more often held fast in these snares, he had an ever growing desire, not so
much to escape from them, as to try whether they hindered his freedom. Had it not
been for this growing desire to be free, not to have scenes every time he wanted to go
to the town to a meeting or a race, Vronsky would have been perfectly satisfied with
his life. The rôle he had taken up, the rôle of a wealthy landowner, one of that class
which ought to be the very heart of the Russian aristocracy, was entirely to his taste;
and now, after spending six months in that character, he derived even greater satisfaction
from it. And his management of his estate, which occupied and absorbed
him more and more, was most successful. In spite of the immense sums cost him
by the hospital, by machinery, by cows ordered from Switzerland, and many other
things, he was convinced that he was not wasting, but increasing his substance. In all
matters affecting income, the sales of timber, wheat, and wool, the letting of lands,
Vronsky was hard as a rock, and knew well how to keep up prices. In all operations
on a large scale on this and his other estates, he kept to the simplest methods
involving no risk, and in trifling details he was careful and exacting to an extreme
degree. In spite of all the cunning and ingenuity of the German steward, who would
try to tempt him into purchases by making his original estimate always far larger
than really required, and then representing to Vronsky that he might get the thing
cheaper, and so make a profit, Vronsky did not give in. He listened to his steward,
cross-examined him, and only agreed to his suggestions when the implement to be
ordered or constructed was the very newest, not yet known in Russia, and likely
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