Page 1473 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

and settle. Levin had to take part in their plans as one of
themselves. It was settled that Levin should go with
Natalia to the concert and the meeting, and that from
there they should send the carriage to the office for

Arseny, and he should call for her and take her to Kitty’s;
or that, if he had not finished his work, he should send the
carriage back and Levin would go with her.
‘He’s spoiling me,’ Lvov said to his wife, ‘he assures me
that our children are splendid, when I know how much
that’s bad there is in them.’
‘Arseny goes to extremes, I always say,’ said his wife. ‘If
you look for perfection, you will never be satisfied. And
it’s true, as papa says,— that when we were brought up
there was one extreme—we were kept in the basement,
while our parents lived in the best rooms; now it’s just the
other way—the parents are in the wash house, while the
children are in the best rooms. Parents now are not
expected to live at all, but to exist altogether for their
children.’
‘Well, what if they like it better?’ Lvov said, with his
beautiful smile, touching her hand. ‘Anyone who didn’t
know you would think you were a stepmother, not a true
mother.’

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