child seemed instinctively to feel that between this man and his mother there was some strange bond of union, which was beyond his comprehension.
In fact, the boy felt that he could not understand this relationship, and he tried in vain to account to himself for the feeling which he ought to have for this man. He saw, with that quick intuition peculiar to childhood, that his father, his governess, and his nurse—all of them—not only did not like Vronsky, but looked with the utmost disfavor on him, although they never spoke about him, while his mother treated him as her best friend.
"What does this mean? Who is he? Must I love him? and is it my fault, and am I a naughty or stupid child, if I don't understand it at all?" thought the little fellow. Hence came his timidity, his questioning and distrustful manner, and this changeableness, which were so unpleasant to Vronsky, The presence of this child always caused in Vronsky that strange feeling of unreasonable repulsion which for some time had pursued him.
The presence of the child aroused in Vronsky and Anna a feeling like that experienced by a mariner who sees by the compass that the course in which he is swiftly moving is widely different from what it should be, but that to stop this course is not in his power; that every instant carries him farther and farther in the wrong direction, and the recognition of the movement that carries him from the right course is the recognition of the ruin that impends.
This child with his innocent views of life was the compass which pointed out to them the degree of their deviation from what they knew but wished not to know.
This day Serozha was not at home and Anna was entirely alone, and sitting on the terrace waiting for the return of her son, who had gone out to walk and got caught in the rain. She had sent a man and a maid to find him, and was sitting there till he should return. Dressed in a white gown with wide embroidery, she was sitting at one corner of the terrace, concealed by plants and flowers, and she did not hear Vronsky's step. With her dark curly head bent, she was pressing her
