Page 407 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘No, I’ll go in from the garden.’
And feeling satisfied that she was alone, and wanting to
take her by surprise, since he had not promised to be there
today, and she would certainly not expect him to come

before the races, he walked, holding his sword and
stepping cautiously over the sandy path, bordered with
flowers, to the terrace that looked out upon the garden.
Vronsky forgot now all that he had thought on the way of
the hardships and difficulties of their position. He thought
of nothing but that he would see her directly, not in
imagination, but living, all of her, as she was in reality. He
was just going in, stepping on his whole foot so as not to
creak, up the worn steps of the terrace, when he suddenly
remembered what he always forgot, and what caused the
most torturing side of his relations with her, her son with
his questioning—hostile, as he fancied—eyes.
This boy was more often than anyone else a check
upon their freedom. When he was present, both Vronsky
and Anna did not merely avoid speaking of anything that
they could not have repeated before everyone; they did
not even allow themselves to refer by hints to anything the
boy did not understand. They had made no agreement
about this, it had settled itself. They would have felt it
wounding themselves to deceive the child. In his presence

406 of 1759