Page 1350 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

almost all the rooms were finished. Going up the broad
cast-iron staircase to the landing, they walked into the first
large room. The walls were stuccoed to look like marble,
the huge plate-glass windows were already in, only the

parquet floor was not yet finished, and the carpenters, who
were planing a block of it, left their work, taking off the
bands that fastened their hair, to greet the gentry.
‘This is the reception room,’ said Vronsky. ‘Here there
will be a desk, tables, and benches, and nothing more.’
‘This way; let us go in here. Don’t go near the
window,’ said Anna, trying the paint to see if it were dry.
‘Alexey, the paint’s dry already,’ she added.
From the reception room they went into the corridor.
Here Vronsky showed them the mechanism for ventilation
on a novel system. Then he showed them marble baths,
and beds with extraordinary springs. Then he showed
them the wards one after another, the storeroom, the linen
room, then the heating stove of a new pattern, then the
trolleys, which would make no noise as they carried
everything needed along the corridors, and many other
things. Sviazhsky, as a connoisseur in the latest mechanical
improvements, appreciated everything fully. Dolly simply
wondered at all she had not seen before, and, anxious to

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