When Alexey Alexandrovitch reached the race-course, Anna was

already sitting in the pavilion beside Betsy, in that pavilion

where all the highest society had gathered. She caught sight of

her husband in the distance. Two men, her husband and her lover,

were the two centers of her existence, and unaided by her

external senses she was aware of their nearness. She was aware

of her husband approaching a long way off, and she could not help

following him in the surging crowd in the midst of which he was

moving. She watched his progress towards the pavilion, saw him

now responding condescendingly to an ingratiating bow, now

exchanging friendly, nonchalant greetings with his equals, now

assiduously trying to catch the eye of some great one of this

world, and taking off his big round hat that squeezed the tips of

his ears. All these ways of his she knew, and all were hateful

to her. "Nothing but ambition, nothing but the desire to get on,

that's all there is in his soul," she thought; "as for these

lofty ideals, love of culture, religion, they are only so many

tools for getting on."

From his glances towards the ladies' pavilion (he was staring

straight at her, but did not distinguish his wife in the sea of

muslin, ribbons, feathers, parasols and flowers) she saw that he

was looking for her, but she purposely avoided noticing him.

"Alexey Alexandrovitch!" Princess Betsy called to him; "I'm sure

you don't see your wife: here she is."

He smiled his chilly smile.

"There's so much splendor here that one's eyes are dazzled," he

said, and he went into the pavilion. He smiled to his wife as a

man should smile on meeting his wife after only just parting from

her, and greeted the princess and other acquaintances, giving to

each what was due--that is to say, jesting with the ladies and

dealing out friendly greetings among the men. Below, near the

pavilion, was standing an adjutant-general of whom Alexey

Alexandrovitch had a high opinion, noted for his intelligence and

culture. Alexey Alexandrovitch entered into conversation with

him.

There was an interval between the races, and so nothing hindered

conversation. The adjutant-general expressed his disapproval of

races. Alexey Alexandrovitch replied defending them. Anna heard

his high, measured tones, not losing one word, and every word

struck her as false, and stabbed her ears with pain.

When the three-mile steeplechase was beginning, she bent forward

and gazed with fixed eyes at Vronsky as he went up to his horse

and mounted, and at the same time she heard that loathsome,

never-ceasing voice of her husband. She was in an agony of

terror for Vronsky, but a still greater agony was the

never-ceasing, as it seemed to her, stream of her husband's

shrill voice with its familiar intonations.




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