Chapter 66 — Anna Karenina

Kitty learns the hidden history behind Varenka's life. Madame Stahl lost her newborn child, and relatives quietly replaced the baby with the cook's daughter, who became Varenka. Even after learning the truth, Madame Stahl kept raising her, and Varenka grew up educated, disciplined, and devoted to caring for others abroad without asking for applause.

At the Shtcherbatskys' evening gathering, Varenka sings with striking composure. Kitty is captivated not only by her voice but by her freedom from vanity. A particular Italian song exposes a private wound: Varenka once loved a man who loved her, but he married another woman at his mother's insistence. She tells the story without bitterness, and Kitty cannot understand how someone humiliated in love could remain so steady.

In the garden, Kitty turns the conversation toward her own recent shame and asks whether humiliation can ever be forgotten. Varenka insists Kitty did nothing disgraceful and keeps redirecting her toward what really matters. But she never names her secret directly. Varenka simply collects her music, refuses unnecessary escort, and walks alone into the summer night, still carrying the calm Kitty longs to understand and cannot yet imitate. Kitty walks back alone wishing she could borrow Varenka's calm for one hour of her own shame.