Anna Karenina (Penguin) - Leo Tolstoy [39]
Just then, downstairs in the prince’s small study, one of those so often repeated scenes was taking place between the parents over their favourite daughter.
‘What? Here’s what!’ the prince shouted, waving his arms and at once closing his squirrel-skin dressing gown. ‘That you have no pride, no dignity, that you disgrace and ruin your daughter with this mean, foolish matchmaking!’
‘But, please, for the love of God, Prince, what have I done?’ the princess said, almost in tears.
Happy and pleased after talking with her daughter, she had come to say good night to the prince as usual, and though she had not intended to tell him about Levin’s proposal and Kitty’s refusal, she had hinted to her husband that she thought the matter with Vronsky quite concluded, that it would be decided as soon as his mother came. And here, at these words, the prince had suddenly flared up and begun shouting unseemly things.
‘What have you done? Here’s what: in the first place, you lure a suitor, and all Moscow is going to be talking, and with reason. If you give soirees, invite everybody, and not some chosen little suitors. Invite all those twits’ (so the prince called the young men of Moscow), ‘invite a pianist and let them dance, but not like tonight - suitors and matchmaking. It’s loathsome, loathsome to look at, and you’ve succeeded, you’ve turned the silly girl’s head. Levin is a thousand times the better man. And this little fop from Petersburg - they’re made by machine, they’re all the same sort, and all trash. Even if he was a prince of the blood, my daughter doesn’t need anybody!’
‘But what have I done?’
‘Here’s what...’ the prince cried out wrathfully.
‘I know that if we listen to you,’ the princess interrupted, ‘we’ll never get our daughter married. In that case, we’ll have to move to the country.’
‘Better to move.’
‘Wait. Am I pursuing anyone? Not at all. But a young man, and a very nice one, has fallen in love, and it seems that she ...’
‘Yes, to you it seems! And what if she really falls in love, and he has as much thought of marrying as I do? ... Oh! I can’t stand the sight of it! ... “Ah, spiritualism, ah, Nice, ah, the next ball ...”’ And the prince, imagining he was imitating his wife, curtsied at each word. ‘And what if we arrange for Katenka’s unhappiness, what if she really takes it into her head ...’
‘But why do you think that?’
‘I don’t think, I know. It’s we who have eyes for that, not women. I see a man who has serious intentions, that’s Levin; and I see a popinjay like this whippersnapper, who is only amusing himself.’
‘Well, once you’ve taken it into your head ...’
‘And you’ll remember, but it will be too late, just as with Dashenka.’
‘Well, all right, all right, let’s not talk about it.’ The princess stopped him, remembering about the unfortunate Dolly.
‘Excellent. Good-bye.’
And having crossed each other and kissed each other, yet sensing that each remained of the same opinion, the spouses parted.
The princess was firmly convinced at first that that evening had decided Kitty’s fate and there could be no doubt of Vronsky’s intentions; but her husband’s words troubled her. And, returning to her room, in terror before the unknown future, just like Kitty, she repeated several times in her heart: ‘Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy!’
XVI
Vronsky had never known family life. His mother in her youth had been a brilliant society woman who, during her marriage and especially after it, had had many love affairs, known to all the world. He barely remembered his father and had been brought up in the Corps of Pages.28
Leaving school as a very young and brilliant officer, he immediately fell in with the ways of rich Petersburg military men. Although he occasionally went into Petersburg society, all his amorous interests lay outside it.
In Moscow, after the luxurious and coarse life of Petersburg, he had experienced for the first