Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/644

 assumed a sordid aspect; the cracks in the mosaics, the broken stucco of the cornices, the eternal Golenishchef, the Italian professor, and the German tourist, all became so unspeakably wearisome that it was necessary to make a change. Accordingly he and Anna, who was surprised by this abrupt disenchantment, decided to return to Russia to live in the country. Vronsky wanted to pass through Petersburg to make business arrangements with his brother, and Anna was anxious to see her son. They decided to spend the summer on Vronsky's large patrimonial estate.

CHAPTER XIV

had been married three months. He was happy, but in a different way from what he had anticipated. At every step he had found that his former expectations were illusory, and that his joy lay in what he had not anticipated. He was happy, but as he went on in his married existence he discovered at each step that it was utterly different from what he had imagined it would be. At each step he experienced what a man would experience who had been charmed with the graceful and joyful motion of a boat on the sea, and afterwards should find himself in the boat. He saw that it was not enough to sit still and not rock; it was necessary to be on the lookout, never for a moment forgetful of the course, to think of the water under his feet, to row,—and rowing for unaccustomed arms is hard; easy enough it is to look on, but it is hard, very hard, to work, even though it be very agreeable.

When still a bachelor, looking at the conjugal life of others, at their little miseries, quarrels, jealousies, he had often laughed scornfully in his heart of hearts. In his future married life never should any such thing happen; even all the external forms of his private life should be in every respect absolutely different from that of others. And lo, and behold, instead of that, his life with his wife not only refused to arrange itself peculiarly, but, on the