Their conversation was interrupted by Anna, who had found the men of the party in the billiard room, and returned with them to the terrace.
There was still a long time before the dinner hour, it was exquisite weather, and so several different methods of spending the next two hours were proposed.
There were very many methods of passing the time at Vozdvizhenskoe, and these were all unlike those in use at Pokrovskoe.
` Une partie de lawn tennis,' Veslovsky proposed, with his handsome smile. `We'll be partners again, Anna Arkadyevna.'
`No, it's too hot; better stroll about the garden and have a row in the boat - show Darya Alexandrovna the riverbanks,' Vronsky proposed.
`I agree to anything,' said Sviiazhsky.
`I imagine that what Dolly would like best would be a stroll -wouldn't you? And then the boat, perhaps,' said Anna.
So it was decided. Veslovsky and Tushkevich went off to the bathing place, promising to get the boat ready and to wait there for them.
They walked along the path in two couples, Anna with Sviiazhsky, and Dolly with Vronsky. Dolly was a little embarrassed and anxious in the new surroundings in which she found herself Abstractly, theoretically, she did not merely justify - she positively approved of Anna's conduct.
As is indeed not infrequent with women of unimpeachable virtue, weary of the monotony of virtuous existence, at a distance she not only excused illicit love - she positively envied it. Besides, she loved Anna with all her heart. But seeing Anna in actual life among these strangers, with this fashionable tone that was so new to Darya Alexandrovna, she felt ill at ease. What she disliked particularly was seeing Princess Varvara ready to overlook everything for the sake of the comforts she enjoyed.
As a general principle, abstractly, Dolly approved of Anna's action;but to see the man for whose sake her action had been taken was disagreeable to her. Moreover, she had never liked Vronsky. She thought him very proud, and saw nothing in him of which he could be proud except his wealth. But against her own will, here in his own house, he imposed upon her more than ever, and she could not be at ease with him. She experienced with him the same feeling she had had the maid about her dressing jacket. Just as with the maid she had felt not exactly ashamed, but embarrassed at her darns, so she felt with him not exactly ashamed, but embarrassed at herself.
Dolly was ill at ease, and tried to find a subject of conversation.
Even though she supposed that, through his pride, praise of his house and garden would be sure to be disagreeable to him, she did all the same tell him how much she liked his house.
`Yes, it's a very fine building, and in the good old-fashioned style,' he said.
`I like so much the court in front of the steps. Was that always so?'
`Oh, no!' he said, and his face beamed with pleasure. `If you could only have seen the court last spring!'
And he began, at first rather diffidently, but more and more carried away by the subject as he went on, to draw her attention to the various details of the decoration of his house and garden. It was evident that, having devoted a great deal of trouble to improve and beautify his home, Vronsky felt a need to show off the improvements to a new person, and was genuinely delighted at Darya Alexandrovna's praise.
`If you would care to look at the hospital, and are not really tired, it's not far. Shall we go?' he said, glancing into her face to convince himself that she was not bored. `Are you coming, Anna?' he turned to her.
`We will come, won't we?' she said, addressing Sviiazhsky. ` Mais il ne faut pas laisser le pauvre Veslovsky et Tushkevich se morfondre làdans le bateau . We must send and tell them.'
`Yes, this is a monument he is setting up here,' said Anna, turning to Dolly with that sly smile of comprehension with which she had previously talked about the hospital.
`Oh, it's a work of real importance!' said Sviiazhsky. But to show he was not trying to ingratiate himself with Vronsky, he promptly added some slightly critical remarks. `I wonder, though, Count,' he said, `that while you do so much for the health of the peasants, you take so little interest in the schools.'
` C'est devenu tellement commun les ècoles ,' said Vronsky. `You understand it's not on that account, but it just happens so, my interest has been diverted elsewhere. This way, then, to the hospital,'
he said to Darya Alexandrovna, pointing to a side path leading out of the avenue.
The ladies put up their parasols and turned into the side path.
After going down several turnings, and going through a little gate, Darya Alexandrovna saw standing on rising ground before her a large pretentious-looking red building, almost finished. The iron roof, which was not yet painted, shone with dazzling brightness in the sunshine. Beside the finished building another had been begun, surrounded by scaffolding. Workmen in aprons, standing on scaffolds, were laying bricks, pouring mortar out of vats, and smoothing it with trowels.
`How quickly work gets done with you!' said Sviiazhsky. `When I was here last time the roof was not on.'
`By the autumn it will all be ready. Inside almost everything is done,' said Anna.
`And what's this new building?'
`That's the house for the doctor and the dispensary,' answered Vronsky; seeing the architect in a short jacket coming toward him, and excusing himself to the ladies, he went to meet him.
Going round a hole where the workmen were slaking lime, he stood still with the architect and began talking rather warmly.
`The pediment looks still too low,' he said to Anna, who had asked what was the matter.
`I said the foundation ought to be raised,' said Anna.
`Yes, of course, it would have been much better, Anna Arkadyevna,'
said the architect, `but now it's too late.'
