Page 293 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

itself, divided into two groups: one round the samovar
near the hostess, the other at the opposite end of the
drawing room, round the handsome wife of an
ambassador, in black velvet, with sharply defined black

eyebrows. In both groups conversation wavered, as it
always does, for the first few minutes, broken up by
meetings, greetings, offers of tea, and as it were, feeling
about for something to rest upon.
‘She’s exceptionally good as an actress; one can see
she’s studied Kaulbach,’ said a diplomatic attache in the
group round the ambassador’s wife. ‘Did you notice how
she fell down?..’
‘Oh, please ,don’t let us talk about Nilsson! No one can
possibly say anything new about her,’ said a fat, red-faced,
flaxen-headed lady, without eyebrows and chignon,
wearing an old silk dress. This was Princess Myakaya,
noted for her simplicity and the roughness of her manners,
and nicknamed enfant terrible. Princess Myakaya, sitting in
the middle between the two groups, and listening to both,
took part in the conversation first of one and then of the
other. ‘Three people have used that very phrase about
Kaulbach to me today already, just as though they had
made a compact about it. And I can’t see why they liked
that remark so.’

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