Page 265 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 2

Soon after the doctor, Dolly had arrived. She knew that
there was to be a consultation that day, and though she
was only just up after her confinement (she had another
baby, a little girl, born at the end of the winter), though
she had trouble and anxiety enough of her own, she had
left her tiny baby and a sick child, to come and hear
Kitty’s fate, which was to be decided that day.
‘Well, well?’ she said, coming into the drawing room,
without taking off her hat. ‘You’re all in good spirits.
Good news, then?’
They tried to tell her what the doctor had said, but it
appeared that though the doctor had talked distinctly
enough and at great length, it was utterly impossible to
report what he had said. The only point of interest was
that it was settled they should go abroad.
Dolly could not help sighing. Her dearest friend, her
sister, was going away. And her life was not a cheerful
one. Her relations with Stepan Arkadyevitch after their
reconciliation had become humiliating. The union Anna
had cemented turned out to be of no solid character, and
family harmony was breaking down again at the same

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