Page 1363 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

the steward and the architect, belonging to a completely
different world, struggling not to be overawed by an
elegance to which they were unaccustomed, and unable to
sustain a large share in the general conversation. But this

difficult conversation Anna directed with her usual tact
and naturalness, and indeed she did so with actual
enjoyment, as Darya Alexandrovna observed. The
conversation began about the row Tushkevitch and
Veslovsky had taken alone together in the boat, and
Tushkevitch began describing the last boat races in
Petersburg at the Yacht Club. But Anna, seizing the first
pause, at once turned to the architect to draw him out of
his silence.
‘Nikolay Ivanitch was struck,’ she said, meaning
Sviazhsky, ‘at the progress the new building had made
since he was here last; but I am there every day, and every
day I wonder at the rate at which it grows.’
‘It’s first-rate working with his excellency,’ said the
architect with a smile (he was respectful and composed,
though with a sense of his own dignity). ‘It’s a very
different matter to have to do with the district authorities.
Where one would have to write out sheaves of papers,
here I call upon the count, and in three words we settle
the business.’

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