Page 1186 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Then she went up to a gentleman with glossy pomaded
hair parted down the center, who was stretching across the
footlights holding out something to her, and all the public
in the stalls as well as in the boxes was in excitement,

craning forward, shouting and clapping. The conductor in
his high chair assisted in passing the offering, and
straightened his white tie. Vronsky walked into the middle
of the stalls, and, standing still, began looking about him.
That day less than ever was his attention turned upon the
familiar, habitual surroundings, the stage, the noise, all the
familiar, uninteresting, particolored herd of spectators in
the packed theater.
There were, as always, the same ladies of some sort
with officers of some sort in the back of the boxes; the
same gaily dressed women—God knows who—and
uniforms and black coats; the same dirty crowd in the
upper gallery; and among the crowd, in the boxes and in
the front rows, were some forty of the REAL people. And
to those oases Vronsky at once directed his attention, and
with them he entered at once into relation.
The act was over when he went in, and so he did not
go straight to his brother’s box, but going up to the first
row of stalls stopped at the footlights with Serpuhovskoy,
who, standing with one knee raised and his heel on the

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