Page 1111 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Now I will enter upon my duties,’ she said with a
smile after a pause, as she wiped away the traces of tears. ‘I
am going to Seryozha. Only in the last extremity shall I
apply to you.’ And she got up and went out.

Countess Lidia Ivanovna went into Seryozha’s part of
the house, and dropping tears on the scared child’s cheeks,
she told him that his father was a saint and his mother was
dead.
Countess Lidia Ivanovna kept her promise. She did
actually take upon herself the care of the organization and
management of Alexey Alexandrovitch’s household. But
she had not overstated the case when saying that practical
affairs were not her strong point. All her arrangements had
to be modified because they could not be carried out, and
they were modified by Korney, Alexey Alexandrovitch’s
valet, who, though no one was aware of the fact, now
managed Karenin’s household, and quietly and discreetly
reported to his master while he was dressing all it was
necessary for him to know. But Lidia Ivanovna’s help was
none the less real; she gave Alexey Alexandrovitch moral
support in the consciousness of her love and respect for
him, and still more, as it was soothing to her to believe, in
that she almost turned him to Christianity—that is, from
an indifferent and apathetic believer she turned him into

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