Page 263 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

the pieces of a broken vase. Her heart was broken. Why
would they try to cure her with pills and powders? But she
could not grieve her mother, especially as her mother
considered herself to blame.

‘May I trouble you to sit down, princess?’ the
celebrated doctor said to her.
He sat down with a smile, facing her, felt her pulse, and
again began asker her tiresome questions. She answered
him, and all at once got up, furious.
‘Excuse me, doctor, but there is really no object in this.
This is the third time you’ve asked me the same thing.’
The celebrated doctor did not take offense.
‘Nervous irritability,’ he said to the princess, when
Kitty had left the room. ‘However, I had finished..’
And the doctor began scientifically explaining to the
princess, as an exceptionally intelligent woman, the
condition of the young princess, and concluded by
insisting on the drinking of the waters, which were
certainly harmless. At the question: Should they go
abroad? the doctor plunged into deep meditation, as
though resolving a weighty problem. Finally his decision
was pronounced: they were to go abroad, but to put no
faith in foreign quacks, and to apply to him in any need.

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