The Countess Lidia Ivanovna had, as a very young and sentimental1 girl, been married to a wealthy man of high rank, an extremely good-natured, jovial2, and extremely dissipated rake. Two months after marriage her husband abandoned her, and her impassioned protestations of affection he met with a sarcasm3 and even hostility4 that people knowing the count's good heart, and seeing no defects in the sentimental Lidia, were at loss to explain. Though they were divorced and lived apart, yet whenever the husband met the wife, he invariably behaved to her with the same malignant5 irony6, the cause of which was incomprehensible.
Countess Lidia Ivanovna had long given up being in love with her husband, but from that time she had never given up being in love with someone. She was in love with several people at once, both men and women; she had been in love with almost everyone who had been particularly distinguished7 in any way. She was in love with all the new princes and princesses who married into the imperial family; she had been in love with a high dignitary of the Church, a vicar, and a parish priest; she had been in love with a journalist, three Slavophiles, with Komissarov, with a minister, a doctor, an English missionary8 and Karenin. All these passions constantly waning9 or growing more ardent10, did not prevent her from keeping up the most extended and complicated relations with the court and fashionable society. But from the time that after Karenin's trouble she took him under her special protection, from the time that she set to work in Karenin's household looking after his welfare, she felt that all her other attachments11 were not the real thing, and that she was now genuinely in love, and with no one but Karenin. The feeling she now experienced for him seemed to her stronger than any of her former feelings. Analyzing12 her feeling, and comparing it with former passions, she distinctly perceived that she would not have been in love with Komissarov if he had not saved the life of the Tsar, that she would not have been in love with Ristitch-Kudzhitsky if there had been no Slavonic question, but that she loved Karenin for himself, for his lofty, uncomprehended soul, for the sweet--to her--high notes of his voice, for his drawling intonation13, his weary eyes, his character, and his soft white hands with their swollen14 veins15. She was not simply overjoyed at meeting him, but she sought in his face signs of the impression she was making on him. She tried to please him, not by her words only, but in her whole person. For his sake it was that she now lavished16 more care on her dress than before. She caught herself in reveries on what might have been, if she had not been married and he had been free. She blushed with emotion when he came into the room, she could not repress a smile of rapture17 when he said anything amiable18 to her.
For several days now Countess Lidia Ivanovna had been in a state of intense excitement. She had learned that Anna and Vronsky were in Petersburg. Alexey Alexandrovitch must be saved from seeing her, he must be saved even from the torturing knowledge that that awful woman was in the same town with him, and that he might meet her any minute.
Lidia Ivanovna made inquiries19 through her friends as to what those infamous20 people, as she called Anna and Vronsky, intended doing, and she endeavored so to guide every movement of her friend during those days that he could not come across them. The young adjutant, an acquaintance of Vronsky, through whom she obtained her information, and who hoped through Countess Lidia Ivanovna to obtain a concession21, told her that they had finished their business and were going away next day. Lidia Ivanovna had already begun to calm down, when the next morning a note was brought her, the handwriting of which she recognized with horror. It was the handwriting of Anna Karenina. The envelope was of paper as thick as bark; on the oblong yellow paper there was a huge monogram22, and the letter smelt23 of agreeable scent24.
"Who brought it?"
"A commissionaire from the hotel."
It was some time before Countess Lidia Ivanovna could sit down to read the letter. Her excitement brought on an attack of asthma25, to which she was subject. When she had recovered her composure, she read the following letter in French:
"Madame la Comtesse,
"The Christian26 feelings with which your heart is filled give me the, I feel, unpardonable boldness to write to you. I am miserable27 at being separated from my son. I entreat28 permission to see him once before my departure. Forgive me for recalling myself to your memory. I apply to you and not to Alexey Alexandrovitch, simply because I do not wish to cause that generous man to suffer in remembering me. Knowing your friendship for him, I know you will understand me. Could you send Seryozha to me, or should I come to the house at some fixed29 hour, or will you let me know when and where I could see him away from home? I do not anticipate a refusal, knowing the magnanimity of him with whom it rests. You cannot conceive the craving30 I have to see him, and so cannot conceive the gratitude31 your help will arouse in me.
Anna"
Everything in this letter exasperated32 Countess Lidia Ivanovna: its contents and the allusion33 to magnanimity, and especially its free and easy--as she considered--tone.
"Say that there is no answer," said Countess Lidia Ivanovna, and immediately opening her blotting-book, she wrote to Alexey Alexandrovitch that she hoped to see him at one o'clock at the levee.
"I must talk with you of a grave and painful subject. There we will arrange where to meet. Best of all at my house, where I will order tea as you like it. Urgent. He lays the cross, but He gives the strength to bear it," she added, so as to give him some slight preparation. Countess Lidia Ivanovna usually wrote some two or three letters a day to Alexey Alexandrovitch. She enjoyed that form of communication, which gave opportunity for a refinement34 and air of mystery not afforded by their personal interviews.
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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jovial
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| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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waning
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| adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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attachments
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| n.（用电子邮件发送的）附件( attachment的名词复数 )；附着；连接；附属物 | |
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analyzing
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| v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析 | |
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intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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lavished
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| v.过分给予，滥施( lavish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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monogram
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| n.字母组合 | |
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smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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asthma
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| n.气喘病，哮喘病 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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entreat
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| v.恳求，恳请 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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32
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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33
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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