Vronsky openly flirted with Kitty at balls, danced with her, and

came continually to the house, consequently there could be no

doubt of the seriousness of his intentions. But, in spite of

that, the mother had spent the whole of that winter in a state of

terrible anxiety and agitation.

Princess Shtcherbatskaya had herself been married thirty years

ago, her aunt arranging the match. Her husband, about whom

everything was well known before hand, had come, looked at his

future bride, and been looked at. The match-making aunt had

ascertained and communicated their mutual impression. That

Advertisement..

impression had been favorable. Afterwards, on a day fixed

beforehand, the expected offer was made to her parents, and

accepted. All had passed very simply and easily. So it seemed,

at least, to the princess. But over her own daughters she had

felt how far from simple and easy is the business, apparently so

commonplace, of marrying off one's daughters. The panics that

had been lived through, the thoughts that had been brooded over,

the money that had been wasted, and the disputes with her husband

over marrying the two elder girls, Darya and Natalia! Now, since

the youngest had come out, she was going through the same

terrors, the same doubts, and still more violent quarrels with

her husband than she had over the elder girls. The old prince,

like all fathers indeed, was exceedingly punctilious on the score

of the honor and reputation of his daughters. He was

irrationally jealous over his daughters, especially over Kitty,

who was his favorite. At every turn he had scenes with the

princess for compromising her daughter. The princess had grown

accustomed to this already with her other daughters, but now she

felt that there was more ground for the prince's touchiness. She

saw that of late years much was changed in the manners of

society, that a mother's duties had become still more difficult.

She saw that girls of Kitty's age formed some sort of clubs, went

to some sort of lectures, mixed freely in men's society; drove

about the streets alone, many of them did not curtsey, and, what

was the most important thing, all the girls were firmly convinced

that to choose their husbands was their own affair, and not their

parents'. "Marriages aren't made nowadays as they used to be,"

was thought and said by all these young girls, and even by their

elders. But how marriages were made now, the princess could not

learn from any one. The French fashion--of the parents

arranging their children's future--was not accepted; it was

condemned. The English fashion of the complete independence of

girls was also not accepted, and not possible in Russian society.

The Russian fashion of match-making by the offices of

intermediate persons was for some reason considered unseemly; it

was ridiculed by every one, and by the princess herself. But how

girls were to be married, and how parents were to marry them, no

one knew. Everyone with whom the princess had chanced to discuss

the matter said the same thing: "Mercy on us, it's high time in

our day to cast off all that old-fashioned business. It's the

young people have to marry; and not their parents; and so we

ought to leave the young people to arrange it as they choose." It

was very easy for anyone to say that who had no daughters, but

the princess realized that in the process of getting to know each

other, her daughter might fall in love, and fall in love with

someone who did not care to marry her or who was quite unfit to

be her husband. And, however much it was instilled into the

princess that in our times young people ought to arrange their

lives for themselves, she was unable to believe it, just as she

would have been unable to believe that, at any time whatever, the

most suitable playthings for children five years old ought to be

loaded pistols. And so the princess was more uneasy over Kitty

than she had been over her elder sisters.




Most Popular