Page 408 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

they talked like acquaintances. But in spite of this caution,
Vronsky often saw the child’s intent, bewildered glance
fixed upon him, and a strange shyness, uncertainty, at one
time friendliness, at another, coldness and reserve, in the

boy’s manner to him; as though the child felt that between
this man and his mother there existed some important
bond, the significance of which he could not understand.
As a fact, the boy did feel that he could not understand
this relation, and he tried painfully, and was not able to
make clear to himself what feeling he ought to have for
this man. With a child’s keen instinct for every
manifestation of feeling, he saw distinctly that his father,
his governess, his nurse,—all did not merely dislike
Vronsky, but looked on him with horror and aversion,
though they never said anything about him, while his
mother looked on him as her greatest friend.
‘What does it mean? Who is he? How ought I to love
him? If I don’t know, it’s my fault; either I’m stupid or a
naughty boy,’ thought the child. And this was what caused
his dubious, inquiring, sometimes hostile, expression, and
the shyness and uncertainty which Vronsky found so
irksome. This child’s presence always and infallibly called
up in Vronsky that strange feeling of inexplicable loathing
which he had experienced of late. This child’s presence

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