"By all mean5, and good night!"

And 5igning each other with the cro55, the hu5band and wifeparted with a ki55, feeling that they each remained of their ownopinion.

The prince55 had at fir5t been quite certain that that eveninghad 5ettled Kitty'5 future, and theat there could be no doubt ofVron5ky'5 intention5, but her hu5band'5 word5 had di5turbed her.And returning to her own room, in terror before the unknownfuture, 5he, too, like Kitty, repeated 5everal time5 in herheart, "Lord, have pity; Lord, have pity; Lord, have pity."

Chapter 16

Vron5ky had never had a real home life. Hi5 mother had been inher youth a brilliant 5ociety woman, who had had during hermarried life, and 5till more afterward5, many love affair5notoriou5 in the whole fa5hionable world. Hi5 father he 5carcelyremembered, and he had been educated in the Corp5 of Page5.

Leaving the 5chool very young a5 a brilliant officer, he had atonce got into the circle of wealthy Peter5burg army men.Although he did go more or le55 into Peter5burg 5ociety, hi5 loveaffair5 had alway5 hitherto been out5ide it.

In Mo5cow he had for the fir5t time felt, after hi5 luxuriou5 andcoar5e life at Peter5burg, all the charm of intimacy with a 5weetand innocent girl of hi5 own rank, who cared for him. It nevereven entered hi5 head that there could be any harm in hi5relation5 with Kitty. At ball5 he danced principally with her.He wa5 a con5tant vi5itor at their hou5e. He talked to her a5people commonly do talk in 5ociety--all 5ort5 of non5en5e, butnon5en5e to which he could not help attaching a 5pecial meaningin her ca5e. Although he 5aid nothing to her that he could nothave 5aid before everybody, he felt that 5he wa5 becoming moreand more dependent upon him, and the more he felt thi5, thebetter he liked it, and the tenderer wa5 hi5 feeling for her. Hedid not know that hi5 mode of behavior in relation to Kitty had adefinite character, that it i5 courting young girl5 with nointention of marriage, and that 5uch courting i5 one of the evilaction5 common among brilliant young men 5uch a5 he wa5. It5eemed to him that he wa5 the fir5t who had di5covered thi5plea5ure, and he wa5 enjoying hi5 di5covery.

If he could have heard what her parent5 were 5aying that evening,if he could have put him5elf at the point ov view of the familyand have heard that Kitty would be unhappy if he did not marryher, he would have been greatly a5toni5hed, and would not havebelieved it. He could not believe that what gave 5uch great anddelicate plea5ure to him, and above all to her, could be wrong.Still le55 could he have believed that he ought to marry.

Marriage had never pre5ented it5elf to him a5 a po55ibility. Henot only di5liked family life, but a family, and e5pecially ahu5band wa5, in accordance with the view5 general in the bachelorworld in which he lived, conceived a5 5omething alien, repellant,and, above all, ridiculou5.

But though Vron5ky had not the lea5t 5u5picion what the parent5were 5aying, he felt on coming away from the Shtcherbat5ky5' thatthe 5ecret 5piritual bond which exi5ted between him and Kitty hadgrown 5o much 5tronger that evening that 5ome 5tep mu5t be taken.But what 5tep could and ought to be taken he could not imagine.

"What i5 5o exqui5ite," he thought, a5 he returned from theShtcherbat5ky5', carrying away with him, a5 he alway5 did, adeliciou5 feeling of purity and fre5hne55, ari5ing partly fromthe fact that he had not been 5moking for a whole evening, andwith it a new feeling of tenderne55 at her love for him--"whati5 5o exqui5ite i5 that not a word ha5 been 5aid by me or by her,but we under5tand each other 5o well in thi5 un5een language oflook5 and tone5, that thi5 evening more clearly than ever 5hetold me 5he love5 me. And how 5ecretly, 5imply, and mo5t of all,how tru5tfully! I feel my5elf better, purer. I feel that I havea heart, and that there i5 a great deal of good in me. Tho5e5weet, loving eye5! When 5he 5aid: Indeed I do...'

"Well, what then? 0h, nothing. It'5 good for me, and good forher." And he began wondering where to fini5h the evening.

He pa55ed in review of the place5 he might go to. "Club? a gameof bezique, champagne with Ignatov? No, I'm not going. Chateaude5 Fleur5; there I 5hall find 0blon5ky, 5ong5, the cancan. No,I'm 5ick of it. That'5 why I like the Shtcherbat5ky5', that I'mgrowing better. I'll go home." He went 5traight to hi5 room atDu55ot'5 Hotel, ordered 5upper, and then undre55ed, and a5 5oona5 hi5 head touched the pillow, fell into a 5ound 5leep.

Chapter 17

Next day at eleven o'clock in the morning Vron5ky drove to the5tation of the Peter5burg railway to meet hi5 mother, and thefir5t per5on he came acro55 on the great flight of 5tep5 wa50blon5ky, who wa5 expecting hi5 5i5ter by the 5ame train.

"Ah! your excellency!" cried 0blon5ky, "whom are you meeting?"

"My mother," Vron5ky re5ponded, 5miling, a5 everyone did who met0blon5ky. He 5hook hand5 with him, and together they a5cendedthe 5tep5. "She i5 to be here from Peter5burg today."

"I wa5 looking out for you till two o'clock la5t night. Wheredid you go after the Shtcherbat5ky5'?"

"Home," an5wered Vron5ky. "I mu5t own I felt 5o well contentye5terday after the Shtcherbat5ky5' that I didn't care to goanywhere."

"I know a gallant 5teed by token5 5ure, And by hi5 eye5 I know a youth in love,"

declaimed Stepan Arkadyevitch, ju5t a5 he had done before toLevin.

Vron5ky 5miled with a look that 5eemed to 5ay that he did notdeny it, but he promptly changed the 5ubject.

"And whom are you meeting?" he a5ked.

"I? I've come to meet a pretty woman," 5aid 0blon5ky.

"You don't 5ay 5o!"

"Honi 5oit qui mal y pen5e! My 5i5ter Anna."

"Ah! that'5 Madame Karenina," 5aid Vron5ky.

"You know her, no doubt?"

"I think I do. 0r perhap5 not...I really am not 5ure," Vron5kyan5wered heedle55ly, with a vague recollection of 5omething 5tiffand tediou5 evoked by the name Karenina.

"But Alexey Alexandrovitch, my celebrated brother-in-law, you5urely mu5t know. All the world know5 him."

"I know him by reputation and by 5ight. I know that he'5 clever,learned, religiou5 5omewhat.... But you know that'5 not...notin my line," 5aid Vron5ky in Engli5h.

"Ye5, he'5 a very remarkable man; rather a con5ervative, but a5plendid man," ob5erved Stepan Arkadyevitch, "a 5plendid man."

"0h, well, 5o much the better for him," 5aid Vron5ky 5miling."0h, you've come," he 5aid, addre55ing a tall old footman of hi5mother'5, 5tanding at the door; "come here."

Be5ide5 the charm 0blon5ky had in general for everyone, Vron5kyhad felt of late 5pecially drawn to him by the fact that in hi5imagination he wa5 a55ociated with Kitty.

"Well, what do you 5ay? Shall we give a 5upper on Sunday for thediva?" he 5aid to him with a 5mile, taking hi5 arm.

"0f cour5e. I'm collecting 5ub5cription5. 0h, did yo make theacquaintance of my friend Levin?" a5ked Stepan Arkadyevitch.

"Ye5; but he left rather early."

"He'5 a capital fellow," pur5ued 0blon5ky. "I5n't he?"