s to know all women better
than if one knew thousands of them."

"We're coming directly!" Vronsky shouted to an officer, who
looked into the room and called them to the colonel.

Vronsky was longing now to hear to the end and know what
Serpuhovskey would say to him.

"And here's my opinion for you. Women are the chief stumbling
block in a man's career. It's hard to love a woman and do
anything. There's only one way of having love conveniently
without its being a hindrance--that's marriage. How, how am I
to tell you what I mean?" said Serpuhovskoy, who liked similes.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute! Yes, just as you can only carry a
_fardeau_ and do something with your hands, when the fardeau is
tied on your back, and that's marriage. And that's what I felt
when I was married. My hands were suddenly set free. But to
drag that _fardeau_ about with you without marriage, your hands
will always be so full that you can do nothing. Look at
Mazankov, at Krupov. They've ruined their careers for the sake
of women."

"What women!" said Vronsky, recalling the Frenchwoman and the
actress with whom the two men he had mentioned were connected.

"The firmer the woman's footing in society, the worse it is.
That's much the same as--not merely carrying the _fardeau_ in
your arms--but tearing it away from someone else."

"You have never loved," Vronsky said softly, looking straight
before him and thinking of Anna.

"Perhaps. But you remember what I've said to you. And another
thing, women are all more materialistic than men. We make
something immense out of love, but they are always
_terre-a-terre_."

"Directly, directly!" he cried to a footman who came in. But the
footman had not come to call them again, as he supposed. The
footman brought Vronsky a note.

"A man brought it from Princess Tverskaya."

Vronsky opened the letter, and flushed crimson.

"My head's begun to ache; I'm going home," he said to
Serpuhovskoy.

"Oh, good-bye then. You give me _carte blanche!_"

"We'll talk about it later on; I'll look you up in Petersburg."

Chapter 22

It was six o'clock already, and so, in order to be there quickly,
and at the same time not to drive with his own horses, known to
everyone, Vronsky got into Yashvin's hired fly, and told the
driver to drive as quickly as possible. It was a roomy,
old-fashioned fly, with seats for four. He sat in one corner,
stretched his legs out on the front seat, and sank