Page 156 - ANNA KARENINA
P. 156
Anna Karenina
Chapter 20
The whole of that day Anna spent at home, that’s to
say at the Oblonskys’, and received no one, though some
of her acquaintances had already heard of her arrival, and
came to call; the same day. Anna spent the whole morning
with Dolly and the children. She merely sent a brief note
to her brother to tell him that he must not fail to dine at
home. ‘Come, God is merciful,’ she wrote.
Oblonsky did dine at home: the conversation was
general, and his wife, speaking to him, addressed him as
‘Stiva,’ as she had not done before. In the relations of the
husband and wife the same estrangement still remained,
but there was no talk now of separation, and Stepan
Arkadyevitch saw the possibility of explanation and
reconciliation.
Immediately after dinner Kitty came in. She knew
Anna Arkadyevna, but only very slightly, and she came
now to her sister’s with some trepidation, at the prospect
of meeting this fashionable Petersburg lady, whom
everyone spoke so highly of. But she made a favorable
impression on Anna Arkadyevna—she saw that at once.
Anna was unmistakably admiring her loveliness and her
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