Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART SIX CHAPTER 25
to excite wonder. Apart from such exceptions, he resolved upon an increased outlay
only where there was a surplus, and in making such an outlay he went into the
minutest details, and insisted on getting the very best for his money; so that by the
method on which he managed his affairs, it was clear that he was not wasting, but
increasing his substance.
In October there were the provincial elections in the Kashinsky province, where
were the estates of Vronsky, Sviazhsky, Koznishev, Oblonsky, and a small part of
Levin’s land.
These elections were attracting public attention from several circumstances connected
with them, and also from the people taking part in them. There had been a
great deal of talk about them, and great preparations were being made for them. Persons
who never attended the elections were coming from Moscow, from Petersburg,
and from abroad to attend these. Vronsky had long before promised Sviazhsky to go
to them. Before the elections Sviazhsky, who often visited Vozdvizhenskoe, drove
over to fetch Vronsky. On the day before there had been almost a quarrel between
Vronsky and Anna over this proposed expedition. It was the very dullest autumn
weather, which is so dreary in the country, and so, preparing himself for a struggle,
Vronsky, with a hard and cold expression, informed Anna of his departure as he had
never spoken to her before. But, to his surprise, Anna accepted the information with
great composure, and merely asked when he would be back. He looked intently at
her, at a loss to explain this composure. She smiled at his look. He knew that way
she had of withdrawing into herself, and knew that it only happened when she had
determined upon something without letting him know her plans. He was afraid of
this; but he was so anxious to avoid a scene that he kept up appearances, and half
sincerely believed in what he longed to believe in–her reasonableness.
“I hope you won’t be dull?”
“I hope not,” said Anna. “I got a box of books yesterday from Gautier’s. No, I
shan’t be dull.”
“She’s trying to take that tone, and so much the better,” he thought, “or else it
would be the same thing over and over again.”
And he set off for the elections without appealing to her for a candid explanation.
It was the first time since the beginning of their intimacy that he had parted from
her without a full explanation. From one point of view this troubled him, but on the
other side he felt that it was better so. “At first there will be, as this time, something
undefined kept back, and then she will get used to it. In any case I can give up
anything for her, but not my masculine independence,” he thought.
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