Page 1343 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 20

‘Here’s Dolly for you, princess, you were so anxious to
see her,’ said Anna, coming out with Darya Alexandrovna
onto the stone terrace where Princess Varvara was sitting
in the shade at an embroidery frame, working at a cover
for Count Alexey Kirillovitch’s easy chair. ‘She says she
doesn’t want anything before dinner, but please order
some lunch for her, and I’ll go and look for Alexey and
bring them all in.’
Princess Varvara gave Dolly a cordial and rather
patronizing reception, and began at once explaining to her
that she was living with Anna because she had always
cared more for her than her sister Katerina Pavlovna, the
aunt that had brought Anna up, and that now, when every
onehad abandoned Anna, she thought it her duty to help
her in this most difficult period of transition.
‘Her husband will give her a divorce, and then I shall
go back to my solitude; but now I can be of use, and I am
doing my duty, however difficult it may be for me—not
like some other people. And how sweet it is of you, how
right of you to have come! They live like the best of
married couples; it’s for God to judge them, not for us.

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