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By Root 1403 0

very much and, something I never expected, he’s passionately interested in managing it. But then, his is such a rich nature! Whatever he does, he does splendidly. He’s not only not bored, but he takes it up passionately. Besides all I’ve known of him, he’s become a shrewd and excellent manager. He’s even stingy in his management, but only then. Where it’s a matter of tens of thousands, he doesn’t count,’ she said with that joyfully sly smile with which women often speak of the secret qualities of a beloved man, revealed only to them. ‘You see that big building? It’s a new hospital. I think it will cost more than a hundred thousand. It’s his dadabo now. And do you know what it came from? It seems the muzhiks asked him to lower the rent for some meadows, but he refused, and I reproached him for stinginess. Of course, it wasn’t just from that, but from everything together - he began on this hospital, you see, in order to show that he wasn’t stingy. C’est une petitessebp if you like; but I love him the more for it. And now you’ll see the house. It’s an ancestral house, and nothing on the outside has been altered.’

‘How fine!’ said Dolly, gazing with involuntary astonishment at the beautiful house with its columns emerging from amidst the varied greens of the old trees in the garden.

‘Isn’t it? And the view from the house, from upstairs, is wonderful.’

They drove into a courtyard covered with gravel and adorned with flowers, where two workmen were placing uncut porous stones around a freshly turned flower bed, and stopped under a covered portico.

‘Ah, they’re here already!’ said Anna, looking at the saddle horses which were just being led away from the porch. ‘Isn’t that a fine horse? He’s a cob. My favourite. Bring him here and get me some sugar. Where’s the count?’ she asked of the two liveried footmen who came running out. ‘Ah, here he is!’ she said, seeing Vronsky and Veslovsky coming to meet them.

‘Where will you put the princess?’ Vronsky said in French, addressing Anna, and without waiting for an answer he greeted Darya Alexandrovna again, this time kissing her hand. ‘In the big bedroom with the balcony, I assume?’

‘Oh, no, it’s too far away! Better in the corner room, we’ll see more of each other. Well, come along,’ said Anna, giving her favourite horse the sugar that the footman had brought her.

‘Et vous oubliez votre devoir,’bq she said to Veslovsky, who also came out to the porch.

‘Pardon, j’en ai tout plein les poches,’br he said, smiling and putting his fingers into his waistcoat pocket.

‘Mais vous venez trop tard,’’bs she said, wiping with a handkerchief the hand that the horse had wetted as he took the sugar. Anna turned to Dolly: ‘How long will you stay? One day? That’s impossible!’

‘That’s what I promised, and the children...’ said Dolly, feeling embarrassed both because she had to take her handbag from the carriage and because she knew that her face must be quite covered with dust.

‘No, Dolly, darling ... Well, we’ll see. Come along, come along!’ And Anna took Dolly to her room.

This room was not the fancy one Vronsky had suggested, but one for which Anna said that Dolly must excuse her. And this room for which excuses were offered was filled with such luxury as Dolly had never lived in and reminded her of the best hotels abroad.

‘Well, darling, how happy I am!’ said Anna, sitting down in her riding habit for a moment beside Dolly. ‘Tell me about your family. I saw Stiva in passing, but he can’t talk about the children. How’s my favourite, Tanya? A big girl, I suppose?’

‘Yes, very big,’ Darya Alexandrovna replied curtly, surprised at herself for answering so coldly about her children. ‘We’re having a wonderful stay with the Levins.’

‘If only I’d known you don’t despise me ...’ said Anna. ‘You could all come to stay with us. Stiva is an old and great friend of Alexei’s,’ she added and suddenly blushed.

‘Yes, but we’re so nicely ...’ Dolly replied, embarrassed.

‘Yes, anyhow I’m talking foolishly from joy. One thing, darling, is that I’m so glad you’ve come!’ Anna said, kissing her again. ‘You