Page 1334 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 19

Left alone, Darya Alexandrovna, with a good
housewife’s eye, scanned her room. All she had seen in
entering the house and walking through it, and all she saw
now in her room, gave her an impression of wealth and
sumptuousness and of that modern European luxury of
which she had only read in English novels, but had never
seen in Russia and in the country. Everything was new
from the new French hangings on the walls to the carpet
which covered the whole floor. The bed had a spring
mattress, and a special sort of bolster and silk pillowcases
on the little pillows. The marble washstand, the dressing
table, the little sofa, the tables, the bronze clock on the
chimney piece, the window curtains, and the portieres
were all new and expensive.
The smart maid, who came in to offer her services,
with her hair done up high, and a gown more fashionable
than Dolly’s, was as new and expensive as the whole
room. Darya Alexandrovna liked her neatness, her
deferential and obliging manners, but she felt ill at ease
with her. She felt ashamed of her seeing the patched
dressing jacket that had unluckily been packed by mistake

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