Page 1360 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 22

When Anna found Dolly at home before her, she
looked intently in her eyes, as though questioning her
about the talk she had had with Vronsky, but she made no
inquiry in words.
‘I believe it’s dinner time,’ she said. ‘We’ve not seen
each other at all yet. I am reckoning on the evening. Now
I want to go and dress. I expect you do too; we all got
splashed at the buildings.’
Dolly went to her room and she felt amused. To
change her dress was impossible, for she had already put
on her best dress. But in order to signify in some way her
preparation for dinner, she asked the maid to brush her
dress, changed her cuffs and tie, and put some lace on her
head.
‘This is all I can do,’ she said with a smile to Anna,
who came in to her in a third dress, again of extreme
simplicity.
‘Yes, we are too formal here,’ she said, as it were
apologizing for her magnificence. ‘Alexey is delighted at
your visit, as he rarely is at anything. He has completely
lost his heart to you,’ she added. ‘You’re not tired?’

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