Page 294 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

The conversation was cut short by this observation, and
a new subject had to be thought of again.
‘Do tell me something amusing but not spiteful,’ said
the ambassador’s wife, a great proficient in the art of that

elegant conversation called by the English, small talk. She
addressed the attache, who was at a loss now what to
begin upon.
‘They say that that’s a difficult task, that nothing’s
amusing that isn’t spiteful,’ he began with a smile. ‘But I’ll
try. Get me a subject. It all lies in the subject. If a subject’s
given me, it’s easy to spin something round it. I often
think that the celebrated talkers of the last century would
have found it difficult to talk cleverly now. Everything
clever is so stale..’
‘That has been said long ago,’ the ambassador’s wife
interrupted him, laughing.
The conversation began amiably, but just because it was
too amiable, it came to a stop again. They had to have
recourse to the sure, never-failing topic—gossip.
‘Don’t you think there’s something Louis Quinze
about Tushkevitch?’ he said, glancing towards a
handsome, fair-haired young man, standing at the table.
‘Oh, yes! He’s in the same style as the drawing room
and that’s why it is he’s so often here.’

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