Page 1339 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

up big people with her bright black eyes, she smiled,
unmistakably pleased at their admiring her, and holding
her legs sideways, she pressed vigorously on her arms, and
rapidly drew her whole back up after, and then made

another step forward with her little arms.
But the whole atmosphere of the nursery, and
especially the English nurse, Darya Alexandrovna did not
like at all. It was only on the supposition that no good
nurse would have entered so irregular a household as
Anna’s that Darya Alexandrovna could explain to herself
how Anna with her insight into people could take such an
unprepossessing, disreputable-looking woman as nurse to
her child.
Besides, from a few words that were dropped, Darya
Alexandrovna saw at once that Anna, the two nurses, and
the child had no common existence, and that the mother’s
visit was something exceptional. Anna wanted to get the
baby her plaything, and could not find it.
Most amazing of all was the fact that on being asked
how many teeth the baby had, Anna answered wrong, and
knew nothing about the two last teeth.
‘I sometimes feel sorry I’m so superfluous here,’ said
Anna, going out of the nursery and holding up her skirt so

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