"Here's a delightful surprise, Alexey!" she said, looking round

at Vronsky, who had dismounted, and was walking towards them.

Vronsky, taking off his tall gray hat, went up to Dolly.

"You wouldn't believe how glad we are to see you," he said,

giving peculiar significance to the words, and showing his strong

white teeth in a smile.

Vassenka Veslovsky, without getting off his horse, took off his

cap and greeted the visitor by gleefully waving the ribbons over

his head.

"That's Princess Varvara," Anna said in reply to a glance of

inquiry from Dolly as the _char-à-banc_ drove up.

"Ah!" said Darya Alexandrovna, and unconsciously her face

betrayed her dissatisfaction.

Princess Varvara was her husband's aunt, and she had long known

her, and did not respect her. She knew that Princess Varvara had

passed her whole life toadying on her rich relations, but that

she should now be sponging on Vronsky, a man who was nothing to

her, mortified Dolly on account of her kinship with her husband.

Anna noticed Dolly's expression, and was disconcerted by it. She

blushed, dropped her riding habit, and stumbled over it.

Darya Alexandrovna went up to the _char-à-banc_ and coldly greeted

Princess Varvara. Sviazhsky too she knew. He inquired how his

queer friend with the young wife was, and running his eyes over

the ill-matched horses and the carriage with its patched

mud-guards, proposed to the ladies that they should get into the

_char-à-banc_.

"And I'll get into this vehicle," he said. "The horse is quiet,

and the princess drives capitally."

"No, stay as you were," said Anna, coming up, "and we'll go in

the carriage," and taking Dolly's arm, she drew her away.

Darya Alexandrovna's eyes were fairly dazzled by the elegant

carriage of a pattern she had never seen before, the splendid

horses, and the elegant and gorgeous people surrounding her. But

what struck her most of all was the change that had taken place

in Anna, whom she knew so well and loved. Any other woman, a

less close observer, not knowing Anna before, or not having

thought as Darya Alexandrovna had been thinking on the road,

would not have noticed anything special in Anna. But now Dolly

was struck by that temporary beauty, which is only found in

women during the moments of love, and which she saw now in Anna's

face. Everything in her face, the clearly marked dimples in her

cheeks and chin, the line of her lips, the smile which, as it

were, fluttered about her face, the brilliance of her eyes, the

grace and rapidity of her movements, the fulness of the notes of

her voice, even the manner in which, with a sort of angry

friendliness, she answered Veslovsky when he asked permission to

get on her cob, so as to teach it to gallop with the right leg

foremost--it was all peculiarly fascinating, and it seemed as if

she were herself aware of it, and rejoicing in it.




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