"I agree to anything," said Sviazhsky.

"I imagine that what Dolly would like best would be a stroll--

wouldn't you? And then the boat, perhaps," said Anna.

So it was decided. Veslovsky and Tushkevitch went off to the

bathing place, promising to get the boat ready and to wait there

for them.

They walked along the path in two couples, Anna with Sviazhsky,

and Dolly with Vronsky. Dolly was a little embarrassed and

anxious in the new surroundings in which she found herself.

Abstractly, theoretically, she did not merely justify, she

positively approved of Anna's conduct. As is indeed not

unfrequent with women of unimpeachable virtue, weary of the

monotony of respectable existence, at a distance she not only

excused illicit love, she positively envied it. Besides, she

loved Anna with all her heart. But seeing Anna in actual life

among these strangers, with this fashionable tone that was so new

to Darya Alexandrovna, she felt ill at ease. What she disliked

particularly was seeing Princess Varvara ready to overlook

everything for the sake of the comforts she enjoyed.

As a general principle, abstractly, Dolly approved of Anna's

action; but to see the man for whose sake her action had been

taken was disagreeable to her. Moreover, she had never liked

Vronsky. She thought him very proud, and saw nothing in him of

which he could be proud except his wealth. But against her own

will, here in his own house, he overawed her more than ever, and

she could not be at ease with him. She felt with him the same

feeling she had had with the maid about her dressing jacket.

Just as with the maid she had felt not exactly ashamed, but

embarrassed at her darns, so she felt with him not exactly

ashamed, but embarrassed at herself.

Dolly was ill at ease, and tried to find a subject of

conversation. Even though she supposed that, through his pride,

praise of his house and garden would be sure to be disagreeable

to him, she did all the same tell him how much she liked his

house.

"Yes, it's a very fine building, and in the good old-fashioned

style," he said.

"I like so much the court in front of the steps. Was that

always so?"

"Oh, no!" he said, and his face beamed with pleasure. "If you

could only have seen that court last spring!"

And he began, at first rather diffidently, but more and more

carried away by the subject as he went on, to draw her attention

to the various details of the decoration of his house and garden.

It was evident that, having devoted a great deal of trouble to

improve and beautify his home, Vronsky felt a need to show off

the improvements to a new person, and was genuinely delighted at

Darya Alexandrovna's praise.




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