Page 675 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

feeling either envious of Serpuhovskoy or hurt with him
for not coming first to him when he came to the
regiment. Serpuhovskoy was a good friend, and he was
delighted he had come.

‘Ah, I’m very glad!’
The colonel, Demin, had taken a large country house.
The whole party were in the wide lower balcony. In the
courtyard the first objects that met Vronsky’s eyes were a
band of singers in white linen coats, standing near a barrel
of vodka, and the robust, good-humored figure of the
colonel surrounded by officers. He had gone out as far as
the first step of the balcony and was loudly shouting across
the band that played Offenbach’s quadrille, waving his
arms and giving some orders to a few soldiers standing on
one side. A group of soldiers, a quartermaster, and several
subalterns came up to the balcony with Vronsky. The
colonel returned to the table, went out again onto the
steps with a tumbler in his hand, and proposed the toast,
‘To the health of our former comrade, the gallant general,
Prince Serpuhovskoy. Hurrah!’
The colonel was followed by Serpuhovskoy, who came
out onto the steps smiling, with a glass in his hand.
‘You always get younger, Bondarenko,’ he said to the
rosy-checked, smart-looking quartermaster standing just

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