‘And how are all yours?’ her mother asked.
‘Ah, maman, you have enough grief of your own. Lily has fallen ill, and I’m afraid it’s scarlet fever. I came now just to find out the news, and then, God forbid, if it is scarlet fever, I’ll stay put and not go anywhere.’
The old prince also came out of his study after the doctor’s departure, and having offered Dolly his cheek and said a word to her, turned to his wife:
‘What’s the decision, are you going? Well, and what do you intend to do with me?’
‘I think you should stay, Alexander,’ said his wife.
‘As you wish.’
‘Maman, why shouldn’t papa come with us?’ said Kitty. ‘It will be more cheerful for him and for us.’
The old prince stood up and stroked Kitty’s hair with his hand. She raised her face and, smiling forcedly, looked at him. It always seemed to her that he understood her better than anyone else in the family, though he spoke little with her. As the youngest, she was her father’s favourite, and it seemed to her that his love for her gave him insight. When her glance now met his kindly blue eyes gazing intently at her, it seemed to her that he saw right through her and understood all the bad that was going on inside her. Blushing, she leaned towards him, expecting a kiss, but he only patted her hair and said:
‘These stupid chignons! You can’t even get to your real daughter, but only caress the hair of dead wenches. Well, Dolinka,’ he turned to his eldest daughter, ‘what’s your trump up to?’
‘Nothing, papa,’ answered Dolly, understanding that he meant her husband. ‘He goes out all the time, I almost never see him,’ she could not help adding with a mocking smile.
‘So he hasn’t gone to the country yet to sell the wood?’
‘No, he keeps getting ready to.’
‘Really!’ said the prince. ‘And I, too, must get myself ready? I’m listening, ma’am,’ he turned to his wife as he sat down. ‘And as for you, Katia,’ he added to his youngest daughter, ‘sometime or other, you’ll have to wake up one fine morning and say to yourself: “Why, I’m perfectly well and cheerful, and I’m going to go with papa again for an early morning walk in the frost.” Eh?’
What her father said seemed so simple, yet Kitty became confused and bewildered at these words, like a caught criminal. ‘Yes, he knows everything, understands everything, and with these words he’s telling me that, though I’m ashamed, I must get over my shame.’ She could not pluck up her spirits enough to make any reply. She tried to begin, but suddenly burst into tears and rushed from the room.
‘You and your jokes!’ The princess flew at her husband. ‘You always ...’ she began her reproachful speech.
The prince listened for quite a long time to her rebukes and kept silent, but his face frowned more and more.
‘She’s so pitiful, the poor dear, so pitiful, and you don’t feel how any hint at the cause of it hurts her. Ah, to be so mistaken about other people!’ said the princess, and by the change in her tone Dolly and the prince realized that she was speaking of Vronsky. ‘I don’t understand why there are no laws against such vile, ignoble people.’
‘Ah, I can’t listen!’ the prince said gloomily, getting up from his armchair and making as if to leave, but stopping in the doorway. ‘There are laws, dearest, and since you’re calling me out on it, I’ll tell you who is to blame for it alclass="underline" you, you and you alone. There are and always have been laws against such young devils! Yes, ma’am, and if it hadn’t been for what should never have been, I, old as I am, would have challenged him to a duel, that fop. Yes, so treat her now, bring in your charlatans.’
The prince seemed to have much more to say, but as soon as the princess heard his tone, she humbled herself and repented, as always with serious questions.
‘Alexandre, Alexandre,’ she whispered, moving closer, and burst into tears.
As soon as she began to cry, the prince also subsided. He went over to her.
‘Well, there, there! It’s hard for you, too, I know. What can we do? It’s no great calamity. God is merciful ... give thanks ...’ he said, no longer knowing what he was saying, in response to the princess’s wet kiss, which he felt on his hand, and he left the room.
When Kitty left the room in tears, Dolly, with her motherly, family habit of mind, saw at once that there was woman’s work to be done, and she prepared to do it. She took off her hat and, morally rolling up her sleeves, prepared for action. During her mother’s attack on her father, she tried to restrain her mother as far as daughterly respect permitted. During the prince’s outburst, she kept silent; she felt shame for her mother and tenderness towards her father for the instant return of his kindness; but when her father went out, she got ready to do the main thing necessary - to go to Kitty and comfort her.
‘I’ve long been meaning to tell you, maman: do you know that Levin was going to propose to Kitty when he was here the last time? He told Stiva so.’
‘Well, what of it? I don’t understand ...’
‘Maybe Kitty refused him? ... She didn’t tell you?’
‘No, she told me nothing either about the one or about the other. She’s too proud. But I know it’s all because of that ...’
‘Yes, just imagine if she refused Levin - and she wouldn’t have refused him if it hadn’t been for the other one, I know ... And then that one deceived her so terribly.’
It was too awful for the princess to think of how guilty she was before her daughter, and she became angry.
‘Ah, I understand nothing any more! Nowadays they all want to live by their own reason, they tell their mothers nothing, and then look ...’
‘I’ll go to her, maman.’
‘Go. Am I forbidding you?’ said the mother.
III
Entering Kitty’s small boudoir, a pretty little pink room, with vieux saxeg dolls as young, pink and gay as Kitty had been just two months earlier, Dolly remembered with what gaiety and love they had decorated this little room together last year. Her heart went cold when she saw Kitty sitting on the low chair nearest the door, staring fixedly at a corner of the rug. Kitty glanced at her sister, and her cold, somewhat severe expression did not change.
‘I’ll leave now and stay put at home, and you won’t be allowed to visit me,’ said Darya Alexandrovna, sitting down next to her. ‘I’d like to talk with you.’
‘About what?’ Kitty asked quickly, raising her eyes in fear.
‘What else if not your grief ?’
‘I have no grief.’
‘Come now, Kitty. Can you really think I don’t know? I know everything. And believe me, it’s nothing ... We’ve all gone through it.’
Kitty was silent, and her face had a stern expression.
‘He’s not worth your suffering over him,’ Darya Alexandrovna went on, going straight to the point.
‘Yes, because he scorned me,’ Kitty said in a quavering voice. ‘Don’t talk about it! Please don’t!’