Page 1012 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

previous tours abroad, they could not be thought of, since
the sole attempt of the sort had led to a sudden attack of
depression in Anna, quite out of proportion with the
cause—a late supper with bachelor friends. Relations with

the society of the place—foreign and Russian—were
equally out of the question owing to the irregularity of
their position. The inspection of objects of interest, apart
from the fact that everything had been seen already, had
not for Vronsky, a Russian and a sensible man, the
immense significance Englishmen are able to attach to that
pursuit.
And just as the hungry stomach eagerly accepts every
object it can get, hoping to find nourishment in it,
Vronsky quite unconsciously clutched first at politics, then
at new books, and then at pictures.
As he had from a child a taste for painting, and as, not
knowing what to spend his money on, he had begun
collecting engravings, he came to a stop at painting, began
to take interest in it, and concentrated upon it the
unoccupied mass of desires which demanded satisfaction.
He had a ready appreciation of art, and probably, with
a taste for imitating art, he supposed himself to have the
real thing essential for an artist, and after hesitating for
some time which style of painting to select—religious,

1011 of 1759