" How those figures in the background stand out! There you have technique," he said, addressing Golenishtchev, alluding to a conversation between them about Vronsky's despair of attaining this technique.

"Yes, yes, marvelous!" Golenishtchev and Anna assented.

In spite of the excited condition in which he was, the sentence about technique had sent a pang to Mihailov's heart, and looking angrily at Vronsky he suddenly scowled.

He had often heard this word technique, and was utterly unable to understand what was understood by it.

He knew that by this term was understood a mechanical facility for painting or drawing, entirely apart from its subject.