Chapter 18 — Anna Karenina

At the carriage door Vronsky steps aside for a lady and must look again: not classic beauty alone, but a face with something caressing and soft that overflows despite her effort to hide it. Their eyes meet; gray eyes under dark lashes rest on him with friendly attention, then search the crowd for her brother. He enters to greet his dry, sharp mother, yet listens for that voice outside debating Petersburg views versus feminine ones.

When Anna Karenina is named, he rises, bows, and says their acquaintance was too slight to expect recognition. She smiles with eager warmth, having talked of nothing but him all the way with his mother. Anna greets Oblonsky with decisive grace; her parting handshake squeezes Vronsky's hand with surprising force. He follows her figure until she vanishes, smile lingering, annoyed when she talks eagerly to her brother about matters that exclude him.

Panic on the platform: a guard crushed by the train, mutilated before Vronsky and Oblonsky arrive. Anna whispers whether anything can be done for the widow; Vronsky gives two hundred roubles and returns composed while Oblonsky trembles. Leaving the station, Anna calls the death an evil omen; Oblonsky dismisses it and says they hope Vronsky will marry Kitty. Anna says Yes softly and turns the talk to his marital crisis as they drive toward the life she came to repair.