Page 1361 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

There was no time for talking about anything before
dinner. Going into the drawing room they found Princess
Varvara already there, and the gentlemen of the party in
black frock-coats. The architect wore a swallow-tail coat.

Vronsky presented the doctor and the steward to his guest.
The architect he had already introduced to her at the
hospital.
A stout butler, resplendent with a smoothly shaven
round chin and a starched white cravat, announced that
dinner was ready, and the ladies got up. Vronsky asked
Sviazhsky to take in Anna Arkadyevna, and himself offered
his arm to Dolly. Veslovsky was before Tushkevitch in
offering his arm to Princess Varvara, so that Tushkevitch
with the steward and the doctor walked in alone.
The dinner, the dining room, the service, the waiting
at table, the wine, and the food, were not simply in
keeping with the general tone of modern luxury
throughout all the house, but seemed even more
sumptuous and modern. Darya Alexandrovna watched this
luxury which was novel to her, and as a good housekeeper
used to managing a household—although she never
dreamed of adapting anything she saw to her own
household, as it was all in a style of luxury far above her
own manner of living—she could not help scrutinizing

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