Android Karenina Part 8

"It is lucky you were on this train, it seems, Count Vronsky," she said. "But what are you coming for?" she then added, barely masking the irrepressible delight and eagerness that shone in her eyes.

"What am I coming for?" he repeated, looking straight into her eyes. "You know that I have come to be where you are," he said. "I can't help it."

At that moment the wind, surmounting all obstacles, sent the snow flying from the carriage roofs, and clanked some sheet of iron it had torn off, while the mechanisms of the Grav's engine eased back to life. All the awfulness of the storm, all the terror of the koschei, seemed to her almost splendid now. He had said what her soul longed to hear, though she feared it with her reason. She made no answer, and in her face he saw conflict.

"Forgive me, if you dislike what I said," he said humbly.

He had spoken courteously, deferentially, yet so firmly, so stubbornly, that for a long while she could make no answer. Android Karenina, for all this long silence, looked off with studied disinterest into the distance, while Lupo, less instinctively decorous, sniffed with curiosity at the hem of her skirts.

"It's wrong, what you say, and I beg you, if you're a good man, to forget what you've said, as I shall forget it," she said at last.

"Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget. . . ."

"Enough, enough!" she cried, trying a.s.siduously to give a stern expression to her face, into which he was gazing greedily. And clutching at the cold doorpost, she clambered up the steps and got rapidly into the corridor of the carriage. Settled again in the carriage, fumigated and revivified already by the Grav's a.s.siduous crew of IIs, she cued in Android Karenina's monitor a Memory of what had just occurred. As she watched, she realized instinctively that the momentary conversation had brought them fearfully closer; and she was panic-stricken and blissful at it. The overstrained condition which had tormented her before did not only come back, but was intensified, and reached such a pitch that she was afraid every minute that something would snap within her from the excessive tension. She did not sleep all night. But in that nervous tension, and in the visions that filled her imagination, there was nothing disagreeable or gloomy: on the contrary, there was something blissful, glowing, and exhilarating. Even the painful recollection of the mult.i.tudinous cold steel feet of the koschei, tickling their way up toward her breastbone, could not dampen this powerful rush of feeling.

Toward morning Anna sank into a doze, sitting in her place, and when she woke it was daylight and the Grav was gliding into the Petersburg station. At once thoughts of home, of husband and of son, and the details of that day and the following came upon her.

At Petersburg, as soon as the Grav stopped and she got out, the first person that attracted Anna's attention was her husband. "Oh, mercy! That face!" she murmured to Android Karenina. Covering the right side of Alexei Alexandrovich's face as always, nearly entirely hiding it, was a mask of steely silver, descending from brow to chin, with only enough metal cut away to allow his nose and mouth their full functioning. While Alexei's left eyebrow could and did twitch sardonically, and while his left cheek could and did rise in wry humor, the corresponding parts on the opposite side were hidden behind an unreadable sheen of metallic cold, laced with dark veins of pure groznium-not tempered or alloyed by the Ministry's metallurgists, but the raw, scarlet-black ore itself. Where his right eye once had sat was a large aperture, a cyborgicist's reinvention of a human eye socket, from which emerged a telescoping oculus. It was with this rotating orbital that Alexei Alexandrovich was now scanning the crowd, looking for his wife.

Catching sight of her, he came to meet her, his lips sliding into their habitual, sarcastic smile, and his left human eye looking straight at her, while its mechanized companion eye mechanically scanned the station. An unpleasant sensation gripped at her heart when she met his obstinate and weary glance, as though she had expected to see him different. She was especially struck by the feeling of dissatisfaction with herself that she experienced on meeting him. That feeling was an intimate, familiar feeling, like a consciousness of hypocrisy, which she experienced in her relations with her husband. But hitherto she had not taken note of the feeling; now she was clearly and painfully aware of it.

"Yes, as you see, your tender spouse, as devoted as the first year after marriage, burned with impatience to see you," he said in his deliberate, high-pitched voice, and in that tone which he almost always took with her, a tone of jeering at anyone who should say in earnest what he said. He took his wife's valise from Android Karenina, offering her Cla.s.s III no greeting, and naturally receiving none in return.

"Is Seryozha quite well?" Anna asked.

"This is all the reward," said he, "for my ardor? He's quite well. . . ."

CHAPTER 23.

AFTER THE MAYHEM with the koschei, Vronsky had not even tried to sleep all that night. Rather, as Lupo lay curled in Surcease at his feet, he sat in his Grav carriage, looking straight before him or examining the people who got in and out. If he had indeed on previous occasions struck and impressed people who did not know him by his air of unhesitating composure, he seemed now more haughty and self-possessed than ever. He looked at people as if they were things. A nervous young man, a clerk in a law court, sitting opposite him, hated him for that look. The young man asked him for a light, and entered into conversation with him, and even pushed against him, to make him feel that he was not a thing, but a person. But Vronsky gazed at him exactly as he would a Cla.s.s I device, and the young man made a wry face, feeling that he was losing his self-possession under the oppression of this refusal to recognize him as a person. with the koschei, Vronsky had not even tried to sleep all that night. Rather, as Lupo lay curled in Surcease at his feet, he sat in his Grav carriage, looking straight before him or examining the people who got in and out. If he had indeed on previous occasions struck and impressed people who did not know him by his air of unhesitating composure, he seemed now more haughty and self-possessed than ever. He looked at people as if they were things. A nervous young man, a clerk in a law court, sitting opposite him, hated him for that look. The young man asked him for a light, and entered into conversation with him, and even pushed against him, to make him feel that he was not a thing, but a person. But Vronsky gazed at him exactly as he would a Cla.s.s I device, and the young man made a wry face, feeling that he was losing his self-possession under the oppression of this refusal to recognize him as a person.

Vronsky saw nothing and no one. Occasionally, he pa.s.sed his eye over the revivified carriage to ensure no more of the vicious skittering koschei were aboard, even while he was certain in his heart that none remained: not when he, Alexei Kirillovich, with all his battlefield acuity and self-a.s.surance, had junkered the lot.

He felt himself a king, not because he believed that he had made an impression on Anna-he did not yet believe that-but because the impression she had made on him gave him happiness and pride. His hot-whip crackled pleasantly along his thigh, an old fellow soldier whose very presence reminded him of past successes.

What would come of it all he did not know, he did not even think. He felt that all his forces, hitherto dissipated, wasted, were centered on one thing, and bent with fearful energy on one blissful goal. And he was happy at it. He knew only that he had told her the truth, that he had come where she was, that all the happiness of his life, the only meaning in life for him, now lay in seeing and hearing her. When he had climbed out on the platform and seen her, in the adrenalin-charged moments after the koschei were destroyed, involuntarily his first word had told her just what he thought. And he was glad he had told her it, that she knew it now and was thinking of it. He did not sleep all night. When he was back in the carriage, he kept unceasingly going over every position in which he had seen her, every word she had uttered, and before his fancy, making his heart faint with emotion, floated pictures of a possible future.

When he got out of the train at Petersburg, he felt after his sleepless night as keen and fresh as after a cold bath. He paused near his compartment, waiting for her to get out. "Once more," he said quietly to Lupo, who growled happily, "once more I shall see her walk, her face, her striking beloved-companion; she will say something, turn her head, glance, smile, maybe." But before he caught sight of her, he saw her husband, whom the Stationmaster was deferentially escorting through the crowd. "Ah, yes! The husband." Only now for the first time did Vronsky realize clearly the fact that there was a person attached to her, a husband. He knew that she had a husband, but had hardly believed in his existence, and only now fully believed in him, with his head and shoulders, his cold, mechanical faceplate, his legs clad in black trousers; especially when he saw this husband calmly take her arm with a sense of property.

Seeing Alexei Alexandrovich with his severely self-confident figure, in his round hat, with his rather prominent spine, he believed in him, and was aware of a disagreeable sensation, such as a man might feel tortured by thirst, who, on reaching a spring, should find a dog, a sheep, or a pig who has drunk of it and muddied the water. Alexei Alexandrovich's outsize automated eye, now slowly scanning Anna from within its prominent metal socket, particularly annoyed Vronsky. He could recognize in no one but himself an indubitable right to love her. But she was still the same, and the sight of her affected him the same way, physically reviving him, stirring him, and filling his soul with rapture.

He saw the first meeting between the husband and wife, and noted with a lover's insight the signs of slight reserve with which she spoke to her husband. Lupo, at his feet, bristled and arched his back. "Yes, Lupo, I notice it too," Vronsky said in a low voice to the beast. "She does not love him and cannot love him."

He strode toward the pair, and at the moment before approaching them, he noticed too with joy that Anna Arkadyevna was conscious of his being near, and looked round, and seeing him, turned again to her husband.

"The koschei certainly provided us with a restless evening," Vronsky greeted her. "Are you feeling well this morning?" he asked, bowing to her and her husband together, and leaving it up to Alexei Alexandrovich to accept the bow on his own account, and to recognize it or not, as he might see fit.

"Thank you, yes," she answered.

Lupo's narrow canine eyes looked into the single robotic oculus of Alexei Alexandrovich, and the theriomorphic Cla.s.s III let out a loud, gear-grinding bark. Vronsky silenced him with one raised finger.

Anna's face looked weary, and there was not that play of eagerness in it peeping out in her smile and her eyes; but for a single instant, as she glanced at Vronsky, there was a flash of something in her eyes, and although the flash died away at once, he was happy for that moment. She glanced at her husband to find out whether he knew Vronsky. Alexei Alexandrovich looked over Vronsky's silver uniform with displeasure, vaguely recalling who this was. Vronsky's composure and self-confidence here struck, like a scythe against a stone, upon the cold imperturbability of Alexei Alexandrovich.

"Count Vronsky," said Anna.

"Ah! We are acquainted, I believe," said Alexei Alexandrovich indifferently, giving his hand. To Anna he said, "You set off with the mother and you return with the son," articulating each syllable, as though each were a separate favor he was bestowing.

Lupo barked a second time, sharp and clear, raising his back and baring his teeth at Alexei Alexandrovich, who regarded the beast with weary irritation before addressing his wife in a jesting tone: "Well, were a great many tears shed in Moscow at parting?"

By addressing his wife like this he gave Vronsky to understand that he wished to be left alone, and, turning slightly toward him, he touched his hat; but Vronsky turned to Anna Arkadyevna.

"I hope I may have the honor of calling on you," he said.

Lupo, his circuits for some reason keenly activated, now emitted from his Vox-Em a piercing, willful aroof. aroof. Before Vronsky could chastise the dog-robot, Alexei Alexandrovich c.o.c.ked his head and stared straight at the Cla.s.s III with his dark metallic eye for a long moment. Lupo yelped feebly, shuddered, and fell to the ground like a broken Cla.s.s I plaything. Alexei Alexandrovich then glanced with his biological eye at Vronsky, who was staring with open-mouthed shock at his beloved-companion. Before Vronsky could chastise the dog-robot, Alexei Alexandrovich c.o.c.ked his head and stared straight at the Cla.s.s III with his dark metallic eye for a long moment. Lupo yelped feebly, shuddered, and fell to the ground like a broken Cla.s.s I plaything. Alexei Alexandrovich then glanced with his biological eye at Vronsky, who was staring with open-mouthed shock at his beloved-companion.

"On Mondays we're at home," Alexei Alexandrovich said blandly. Vronsky crouched on the spotless floor of the Grav station cradling Lupo's great, bristly head in his lap. Lupo stirred feebly, issuing hollow little whimpers and moans.

"How fortunate," Alexei Alexandrovich said to his wife in the same jesting tone, dismissing Vronsky altogether, "that I should just have half an hour to meet you, so that I can prove my devotion."

"You lay too much stress on your devotion for me to value it much," she responded in the same jesting tone, involuntarily glancing backward at the stricken Vronsky. "But what has it to do with me?" she murmured to Android Karenina. She began asking her husband how Seryozha had got on without her.

"Oh, capitally! The II/Governess says he has been very good. And . . . I must disappoint you . . . but he has not missed you as your husband has. Well, I must go to my committee. I shall not be alone at dinner again," Alexei Alexandrovich went on, no longer in a sarcastic tone. "You wouldn't believe how I've missed . . . "And with a long pressure of her hand and a meaningful smile, he put her in her carriage.

Vronsky remained on the silver floor of the Petersburg Grav station, watching with relief as signs of full functioning returned one by one to his Cla.s.s III. He shook his head, contemplating the beauty of Anna Karenina, the austere elegance of Android Karenina-and wondering, of her strange, metal-faced husband: What in G.o.d's name is he? What in G.o.d's name is he?

CHAPTER 24.

THE FIRST PERSON to meet Anna at home was her son. He dashed down the stairs to her, in spite of his II/Governess/D147's call, and with desperate joy shrieked: "Mother! Mother!" Running up to her, he hung on her neck. to meet Anna at home was her son. He dashed down the stairs to her, in spite of his II/Governess/D147's call, and with desperate joy shrieked: "Mother! Mother!" Running up to her, he hung on her neck.

"I told told you it was mother!" he shouted to the II/Governess/D147, who issued scolding clucks at this rudeness. "I knew!" you it was mother!" he shouted to the II/Governess/D147, who issued scolding clucks at this rudeness. "I knew!"

But the son, like the husband, aroused in Anna a feeling akin to disappointment. She had imagined him better than he was in reality. She had to let herself drop down to the reality to enjoy him as he really was. But even as he was, he was charming, with his fair curls, his blue eyes, and his plump, graceful little legs in tightly pulled-up stockings. Anna experienced almost physical pleasure in the sensation of his nearness and his caresses, and moral soothing when she met his simple, confiding, and loving glance and heard his naive questions.

Anna took out the Cla.s.s Is that Dolly's children had sent him, and told her son what sort of little girl his cousin was in Moscow, how she could read, and even taught the other children.

"Why, am I not so nice as she?" asked Seryozha.

"To me you're nicer than anyone in the world."

"I know that," said Seryozha, smiling.

Various friends visited with Anna, glad to have her back, while Alexei Alexandrovich spent the day at the Ministry, busy with some momentous project that he himself had initiated and was directing. Anna, finally left alone, spent the time till dinner in helping with her son's dinner (he dined apart from his parents) and in putting her things in order, and in reading and answering the notes and letters that had acc.u.mulated on her table.

The feeling of causeless shame, which she had felt on the journey, and her excitement, too, had completely vanished. In the habitual conditions of her life she felt again resolute and irreproachable; in her physical body she felt only the occasional phantasmal tingling just above her breastbone, where the koschei had danced with its dozens of disgusting feet across her chest.

She shuddered at the memory, and then recalled with wonder her curiously joyful state of mind after the nightmare of the attack. What was it? Nothing. Vronsky said something silly, which was easy to put a stop to, and I answered as I ought to have done. To speak of it to my husband would be unnecessary and out of the question. To speak of it would be to attach importance to what has no importance. What was it? Nothing. Vronsky said something silly, which was easy to put a stop to, and I answered as I ought to have done. To speak of it to my husband would be unnecessary and out of the question. To speak of it would be to attach importance to what has no importance. She remembered how she had told her husband of what was almost a declaration made to her at Petersburg by a young man, one of her husband's subordinates in the Ministry, and how Alexei Alexandrovich had answered that every woman living in the world was exposed to such incidents, but that he had the fullest confidence in her tact, and could never lower her and himself by jealousy. Neither ever mentioned the incident again, and the man had, anyway, later been revealed as a Ja.n.u.s, and given appropriate punishment in Petersburg Square. She remembered how she had told her husband of what was almost a declaration made to her at Petersburg by a young man, one of her husband's subordinates in the Ministry, and how Alexei Alexandrovich had answered that every woman living in the world was exposed to such incidents, but that he had the fullest confidence in her tact, and could never lower her and himself by jealousy. Neither ever mentioned the incident again, and the man had, anyway, later been revealed as a Ja.n.u.s, and given appropriate punishment in Petersburg Square.

"So then there's no reason to speak of it? And indeed, thank G.o.d, there's nothing to speak of," she said to Android Karenina, who nodded her quiet agreement.

"IT'S TIME, IT'S TIME," HE SAID, WITH A MEANINGFUL SMILE; HIS TELESCOPING OCULUS ZOOMED INAS HE ENTERED THEIR BEDROOM Alexei Alexandrovich came back from his meeting at four o'clock, but as often happened, he had not time to come in to her. Later they dined together, and after dinner Anna sat down at the hearth to write a letter to Dolly, and waited for her husband. Precisely at twelve o'clock, when Anna was still sitting at her writing table, she heard the sound of measured steps in slippers, and Alexei Alexandrovich, freshly washed and combed, his faceplate glinting in the hearth light, came in to her.

"He's a good man, truthful, good-hearted, and remarkable in his own line," Anna whispered to Android Karenina, as her husband approached. "And really, the visible half of his face is handsome in its way."

"It's time, it's time," he said, with a meaningful smile; his right eye zoomed slowly toward her, its lens opening visibly, before he went into their bedroom.

"And what right had he to look at him like that?" Anna said to her android, recalling Vronsky's glance at Alexei Alexandrovich. Undressing, she went into the bedroom, and sent Android Karenina, as was appropriate, into Surcease; but her face had none of the eagerness that, during her stay in Moscow, had fairly flashed from her eyes and her smile; on the contrary, now the fire seemed quenched in her, hidden somewhere far away.

PART TWO

VOYAGE OF THE SHCHERBATSKYS.

CHAPTER 1.

AT THE END OF THE WINTER, in the Shcherbatskys' house, a consultation was being held, which was to p.r.o.nounce on the state of Kitty's health and the measures to be taken to restore her failing strength. It was hoped by her family that she was suffering from nothing worse than a broken heart. But she had been severely ill, and as spring came on she grew worse. A celebrated physician was called in, and, with his valise crammed full of the latest physiolographical instruments, accompanied by an industrious hospital-green Cla.s.s II with an impressive effector array, he examined the patient.

For more than an hour the doctor ran his Cla.s.s I physiometers along every inch of Kitty Shcherbatskaya's naked flesh, carefully working the thread-thin vital-estimators into her windpipe and the chambers of her ears, listening with his echolocater pressed against the sides of her skull. Throughout this invasive and degrading process, Princess Shcherbatskaya, the patient's mother, hovered anxiously at the edges of the room, as did Tatiana, the lithe, balletic Cla.s.s III who had, as yet, been little used and hardly noticed by her ailing mistress.

"Well, doctor, decide our fate," said the princess. "Tell me everything."

"Yes, yes, tell! What hope is there? Is there hope?" said La Scherbatskaya, the princess's Cla.s.s III, wringing her hands beside her mistress. said La Scherbatskaya, the princess's Cla.s.s III, wringing her hands beside her mistress.

"Princess. Allow me to examine the results of the various physiolographs and then I will have the honor of laying my opinion before you."

"So we had better leave you?"

"As you please."

When the doctor was left alone, he flicked on his II/Prognosis/M4, and fed into it all the data he had collected. After thirty long seconds, during which the wise little machine ran its efficient tabulation of the various symptoms that had been discovered, the Cla.s.s II reported that there was possibly a commencement of tuberculosis trouble . . . that there were indications: malnutrition, nervous excitability, and so on.

The celebrated physician looked impatiently at the Cla.s.s II. "Yes, but in the presence of tuberculosis indications, what is to be done to maintain nutrition?"

The Cla.s.s II mulled over this follow-up, a faint steam indicative of second-tier information-processing escaping from its Third Bay, while the doctor glanced at his gold-plated watch and waited, thinking about the opera. Meanwhile in the drawing room the family whispered anxiously, surrounding Kitty where she lay prostrate on the sofa, blus.h.i.+ng and antic.i.p.ating her fate. Her Cla.s.s III, Tatiana, performed nervous jetes jetes from one corner of the room to the other. from one corner of the room to the other.

At last the physician received the final results from the Cla.s.s II and entered the drawing room. When the doctor came in, Kitty flushed crimson and her eyes filled with tears. All her illness and treatment struck her as a thing so stupid, ludicrous even! Doctoring her seemed to her as absurd as putting together the pieces of a broken vase. Her heart was broken. Why would they try to cure her with pills and powders and vitasonic recalibrations? But she could not grieve her mother, especially as her mother considered herself to blame.

"May I trouble you to sit down, princess?" the celebrated doctor said to her.

He sat down with a smile, facing her, felt her pulse, and again began asking her tiresome questions. Suddenly sensing an opportunity to be of use to her mistress, Tatiana pirouetted over and took first position directly between the doctor and Kitty.

"Excuse me, doctor," she said, her sweet, still-developing soprano Vox-Em tone showing surprising strength. she said, her sweet, still-developing soprano Vox-Em tone showing surprising strength. "But there is really no object in this. For this is the third time you've asked her the same things!" "But there is really no object in this. For this is the third time you've asked her the same things!" Kitty looked up with wide-eyed grat.i.tude at this intercession, experiencing for the first time that mysterious feeling of true, deep kins.h.i.+p between a human and her beloved-companion; and then, arm in arm, Kitty Shcherbatskaya and her pink-hued android left the room. Kitty looked up with wide-eyed grat.i.tude at this intercession, experiencing for the first time that mysterious feeling of true, deep kins.h.i.+p between a human and her beloved-companion; and then, arm in arm, Kitty Shcherbatskaya and her pink-hued android left the room.

The celebrated doctor did not take offense.

"What a charming Cla.s.s III," he said to the princess. "However, I had finished . . ."

And the doctor began scientifically explaining to the princess, repeating word for word the phrases he had heard only a few minutes earlier from the II/Prognosis/M4. At the question whether they should "go abroad," the doctor plunged into deep meditation, as though resolving a weighty problem. He glanced furtively at the Cla.s.s II, saw it indicate yes yes with a barely perceptible 2.5-degree head unit rotation, and thusly p.r.o.nounced his decision: they with a barely perceptible 2.5-degree head unit rotation, and thusly p.r.o.nounced his decision: they were were to "go abroad," but to put no faith in foreign quacks, and to apply to him in any need. to "go abroad," but to put no faith in foreign quacks, and to apply to him in any need.

It seemed as though some piece of good fortune had come to pa.s.s after the doctor had gone. The mother was much more cheerful when she went back to her daughter, and Kitty pretended to be more cheerful. She even spent a half hour walking the grounds of the estate with Tatiana, which made the rose-accented Cla.s.s III immeasurably joyful.

"Really, I'm quite well, Mamma. But if you want to go abroad, let's go!" she said, and trying to appear interested in the proposed tour, she began talking of the preparations for the journey.

So it was that several weeks later the Shcherbatskys marked the coming of Lent by giving up their terrestrial moorings. They traveled first by Puller carriage and then by Grav to Russia's grand departure port, the town of Pushkin, where stood the pride of the century: the Ballistic Cross...o...b..tal Cannon.

Thus were the Scherbatskys blasted into s.p.a.ce.

CHAPTER 2.

THE HIGHEST PETERSBURG SOCIETY is essentially one: in it everyone knows everyone else, everyone visits everyone else. But this great set has its subdivisions. Anna Arkadyevna Karenina had friends and close ties in various circles of this highest society. One circle was her husband's government official set, consisting of his colleagues and subordinates in the Higher Branches of the Ministry of Robotics and State Administration. Anna found it difficult now to recall the feeling of almost awe-stricken reverence that she had at first entertained for these persons, who were together responsible for the management and advancement of groznium-derived technologies, and therefore for the welfare of all Mother Russia. Now she knew all of them as people know one another in a country town; she knew their habits and weaknesses, and where the shoe pinched each one of them. She knew their relations with one another and with the head authorities, knew who was for whom, and how each one maintained his position, and where they agreed and disagreed. is essentially one: in it everyone knows everyone else, everyone visits everyone else. But this great set has its subdivisions. Anna Arkadyevna Karenina had friends and close ties in various circles of this highest society. One circle was her husband's government official set, consisting of his colleagues and subordinates in the Higher Branches of the Ministry of Robotics and State Administration. Anna found it difficult now to recall the feeling of almost awe-stricken reverence that she had at first entertained for these persons, who were together responsible for the management and advancement of groznium-derived technologies, and therefore for the welfare of all Mother Russia. Now she knew all of them as people know one another in a country town; she knew their habits and weaknesses, and where the shoe pinched each one of them. She knew their relations with one another and with the head authorities, knew who was for whom, and how each one maintained his position, and where they agreed and disagreed.

The second circle with which Anna had ties was preeminently the fas.h.i.+onable world-the world of floating b.a.l.l.s, of dinners, of sumptuous dresses. Her connection with this circle was kept up through Princess Betsy Tverskaya, her cousin's wife, who had an income of a hundred and twenty thousand rubles, and who had taken a great fancy to Anna since she came of age and received her Cla.s.s III, showed her much attention, and drew her into her set, which followed all the latest trends.

Anna had at first avoided as far as she could Princess Tverskaya's world, because it necessitated an expenditure beyond her means, and besides in her heart she preferred the first circle. But since her visit to Moscow she had done quite the contrary. She avoided her serious-minded friends in that circle around the Ministry, and went out into the fas.h.i.+onable world. There she saw Vronsky, and experienced an agitating joy at those meetings. She met Vronsky especially often at Betsy's, for Betsy was a Vronsky by birth and his cousin. Vronsky was everywhere where he had any chance of meeting Anna and speaking to her, when he could, of his love. She gave him no encouragement, but every time she met him there surged up in her heart that same feeling of quickened life that had come upon her that day in the Grav, when he saw her for the first time. She was conscious herself that her delight sparkled in her eyes and curved her lips into a smile, and she could not quench the expression of this delight.

At first Anna sincerely believed, and earnestly expressed to Android Karenina, that she was displeased with him for daring to pursue her. But soon after her return from Moscow, on arriving at a soiree where she had expected to meet him, and not finding him there, she realized distinctly from the rush of disappointment that she had been deceiving herself, and that this pursuit was not merely not distasteful to her, but that it made the whole interest of her life.