Page 235 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

involuntarily listening to the sound of Vronsky’s steps
behind them. ‘But what has it to do with me?’ she said to
herself, and she began asking her husband how Seryozha
had got on without her.

‘Oh, capitally! Mariette says he has been very good,
And...I must disappoint you...but he has not missed you as
your husband has. But once more merci, my dear, for
giving me a day. Our dear Samovar will be delighted.’ (He
used to call the Countess Lidia Ivanovna, well known in
society, a samovar, because she was always bubbling over
with excitement.) ‘She has been continually asking after
you. And, do you know, if I may venture to advise you,
you should go and see her today. You know how she
takes everything to heart. Just now, with all her own cares,
she’s anxious about the Oblonskys being brought
together.’
The Countess Lidia Ivanovna was a friend of her
husband’s, and the center of that one of the coteries of the
Petersburg world with which Anna was, through her
husband, in the closest relations.
‘But you know I wrote to her?’
‘Still she’ll want to hear details. Go and see her, if
you’re not too tired, my dear. Well, Kondraty will take
you in the carriage, while I go to my committee. I shall

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