Anna Karenina - Part 2

Varenka seemed quite unaffected by there being persons present

she did not know, and she went directly to the piano. She could

not accompany herself, but she could sing music at sight very

well. Kitty, who played well, accompanied her.

"You have an extraordinary talent," the princess said to her

after Varenka had sung the first song extremely well.

Marya Yevgenyevna and her daughter expressed their thanks and

admiration.

"Look," said the colonel, looking out of the window, "what an

audience has collected to listen to you." There actually was

quite a considerable crowd under the windows.

"I am very glad it gives you pleasure," Varenka answered simply.

Kitty looked with pride at her friend. She was enchanted by her

talent, and her voice, and her face, but most of all by her

manner, by the way Varenka obviously thought nothing of her

singing and was quite unmoved by their praises. She seemed only

to be asking: "Am I to sing again, or is that enough?"

"If it had been I," thought Kitty, "how proud I should have been!

How delighted I should have been to see that crowd under the

windows! But she's utterly unmoved by it. Her only motive is to

avoid refusing and to please mamma. What is there in her? What

is it gives her the power to look down on everything, to be calm

independently of everything? How I should like to know it and to

learn it of her!" thought Kitty, gazing into her serene face.

The princess asked Varenka to sing again, and Varenka sang

another song, also smoothly, distinctly, and well, standing erect

at the piano and beating time on it with her thin, dark-skinned

hand.

The next song in the book was an Italian one. Kitty played the

opening bars, and looked round at Varenka.

"Let's skip that," said Varenka, flushing a little. Kitty let

her eyes rest on Varenka's face, with a look of dismay and

inquiry.

"Very well, the next one," she said hurriedly, turning over the

pages, and at once feeling that there was something connected

with the song.

"No," answered Varenka with a smile, laying her hand on the

music, "no, let's have that one." And she sang it just as

quietly, as coolly, and as well as the others.

When she had finished, they all thanked her again, and went off

to tea. Kitty and Varenka went out into the little garden that

adjoined the house.

"Am I right, that you have some reminiscences connected with

that song?" said Kitty. "Don't tell me," she added hastily,

"only say if I'm right."