Anna Karenina

t the end of the winter, in the Shtcherbatskys’ house, a consultation
was being held, which was to pronounce on the state of Kitty’s health
and the measures to be taken to restore her failing strength. She had
been ill, and as spring came on she grew worse. The family doctor gave
her cod liver oil, then iron, then nitrate of silver, but as the first
and the second and the third were alike in doing no good, and as his
advice when spring came was to go abroad, a celebrated physician was
called in. The celebrated physician, a very handsome man, still
youngish, asked to examine the patient. He maintained, with peculiar
satisfaction, it seemed, that maiden modesty is a mere relic of
barbarism, and that nothing could be more natural than for a man still
youngish to handle a young girl naked. He thought it natural because he
did it every day, and felt and thought, as it seemed to him, no harm as
he did it and consequently he considered modesty in the girl not merely
as a relic of barbarism, but also as an insult to himself.

There was nothing for it but to submit, since, although all the doctors
had studied in the same school, had read the same books, and learned
the same science, and though some people said this celebrated doctor
was a bad doctor, in the princess’s household and circle it was for
some reason accepted that this celebrated doctor alone had some special
knowledge, and that he alone could save Kitty. After a careful
examination and sounding of the bewildered patient, dazed with shame,
the celebrated doctor, having scrupulously washed his hands, was
standing in the drawing-room talking to the prince. The prince frowned
and coughed, listening to the doctor. As a man who had seen something
of life, and neither a fool nor an invalid, he had no faith in
medicine, and in his heart was furious at the whole farce, specially as
he was perhaps the only one who fully comprehended the cause of Kitty’s
illness. “Conceited blockhead!” he thought, as he listened to the
celebrated doctor’s chatter about his daughter’s symptoms. The doctor
was meantime with difficulty restraining the expression of his contempt
for this old gentleman, and with difficulty condescending to the level
of his intelligence. He perceived that it was no good talking to the
old man, and that the principal person in the house was the mother.
Before her he decided to scatter his pearls. At that instant the
princess came into the drawing-room with the family doctor. The prince
withdrew, trying not to show how ridiculous he thought the whole
performance. The princess was distracted, and did not know what to do.
She felt she had sinned against Kitty.

“Well, doctor, decide our fate,” said the princess. “Tell me
everything.”

“Is there hope?” she meant to say, but her lips quivered, and she could
not utter the question. “Well, doctor?”

“Immediately, princess. I will talk it over with my colleague, and then
I will have the honor of laying my opinion before you.”

“So we had better leave you?”

“As you please.”

The princess went out with a sigh.

When the doctors were left alone, the family doctor began timidly
explaining his opinion, that there was a commencement of tuberculous
trouble, but ... and so on. The celebrated doctor listened to him, and
in the middle of his sentence looked at his big gold watch.

“Yes,” said he. “But....”

The family doctor respectfully ceased in the middle of his
observations.

“The commencement of the tuberculous process we are not, as you are
aware, able to define; till there are cavities, there is nothing
definite. But we may suspect it. And there are indications;
malnutrition, nervous excitability, and so on. The question stands
thus: in presence of indications of tuberculous process, what is to be
done to maintain nutrition?”

“But, you know, there are always moral, spiritual causes at the back in
these cases,” the family doctor permitted himself to interpolate with a
subtle smile.

“Yes, that’s an understood thing,” responded the celebrated physician,
again glancing at his watch. “Beg pardon, is the Yausky bridge done
yet, or shall I have to drive around?” he asked. “Ah! it is. Oh, well,
then I can do it in twenty minutes. So we were saying the problem may
be put thus: to maintain nutrition and to give tone to the nerves. The
one is in close connection with the other, one must attack both sides
at once.”

“And how about a tour abroad?” asked the family doctor.

“I’ve no liking for foreign tours. And take note: if there is an early
stage of tuberculous process, of which we cannot be certain, a foreign
tour will be of no use. What is wanted is means of improving nutrition,
and not for lowering it.” And the celebrated doctor expounded his plan
of treatment with Soden waters, a remedy obviously prescribed primarily
on the ground that they could do no harm.

The family doctor listened attentively and respectfully.

“But in favor of foreign travel I would urge the change of habits, the
removal from conditions calling up reminiscences. And then the mother
wishes it,” he added.

“Ah! Well, in that case, to be sure, let them go. Only, those German
quacks are mischievous.... They ought to be persuaded.... Well, let
them go then.”

He glanced once more at his watch.

“Oh! time’s up already,” And he went to the door. The celebrated doctor
announced to the princess (a feeling of what was due from him dictated
his doing so) that he ought to see the patient once more.

“What! another examination!” cried the mother, with horror.

“Oh, no, only a few details, princess.”

“Come this way.”

And the mother, accompanied by the doctor, went into the drawing-room
to Kitty. Wasted and flushed, with a peculiar glitter in her eyes, left
there by the agony of shame she had been put through, Kitty stood in
the middle of the room. When the doctor came in she flushed crimson,
and her eyes filled with tears. All her illness and treatment struck
her as a thing so stupid, ludicrous even! Doctoring her seemed to her
as absurd as putting together the pieces of a broken vase. Her heart
was broken. Why would they try to cure her with pills and powders? But
she could not grieve her mother, especially as her mother considered
herself to blame.

“May I trouble you to sit down, princess?” the celebrated doctor said
to her.

He sat down with a smile, facing her, felt her pulse, and again began
asking her tiresome questions. She answered him, and all at once got
up, furious.

“Excuse me, doctor, but there is really no object in this. This is the
third time you’ve asked me the same thing.”

The celebrated doctor did not take offense.

“Nervous irritability,” he said to the princess, when Kitty had left
the room. “However, I had finished....”

And the doctor began scientifically explaining to the princess, as an
exceptionally intelligent woman, the condition of the young princess,
and concluded by insisting on the drinking of the waters, which were
certainly harmless. At the question: Should they go abroad? the doctor
plunged into deep meditation, as though resolving a weighty problem.
Finally his decision was pronounced: they were to go abroad, but to put
no faith in foreign quacks, and to apply to him in any need.

It seemed as though some piece of good fortune had come to pass after
the doctor had gone. The mother was much more cheerful when she went
back to her daughter, and Kitty pretended to be more cheerful. She had
often, almost always, to be pretending now.

“Really, I’m quite well, mamma. But if you want to go abroad, let’s
go!” she said, and trying to appear interested in the proposed tour,
she began talking of the preparations for the journey.