Page 676 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

before him, still youngish looking though doing his
second term of service.
It was three years since Vronsky had seen
Serpuhovskoy. He looked more robust, had let his

whiskers grow, but was still the same graceful creature,
whose face and figure were even more striking from their
softness and nobility than their beauty. The only change
Vronsky detected in him was that subdued, continual
radiance of beaming content which settles on the faces of
men who are successful and are sure of the recognition of
their success by everyone. Vronsky knew that radiant air,
and immediately observed it in Serpuhovskoy.
As Serpuhovskoy came down the steps he saw
Vronsky. A smile of pleasure lighted up his face. He tossed
his head upwards and waved the glass in his hand, greeting
Vronsky, and showing him by the gesture that he could
not come to him before the quartermaster, who stood
craning forward his lips ready to be kissed.
‘Here he is!’ shouted the colonel. ‘Yashvin told me you
were in one of your gloomy tempers.’
Serpuhovskoy kissed the moist, fresh lips of the gallant-
looking quartermaster, and wiping his mouth with his
handkerchief, went up to Vronsky.

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