Page 297 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

The sensation produced by Princess Myakaya’s speeches
was always unique, and the secret of the sensation she
produced lay in the fact that though she spoke not always
appropriately, as now, she said simple things with some

sense in them. In the society in which she lived such plain
statements produced the effect of the wittiest epigram.
Princess Myakaya could never see why it had that effect,
but she knew it had, and took advantage of it.
As everyone had been listening while Princess Myakaya
spoke, and so the conversation around the ambassador’s
wife had dropped, Princess Betsy tried to bring the whole
party together, and turned to the ambassador’s wife.
‘Will you really not have tea? You should come over
here by us.’
‘No, we’re very happy here,’ the ambassador’s wife
responded with a smile, and she went on with the
conversation that had been begun.
‘It was a very agreeable conversation. They were
criticizing the Karenins, husband and wife.
‘Anna is quite changed since her stay in Moscow.
There’s something strange about her,’ said her friend.
‘The great change is that she brought back with her the
shadow of Alexey Vronsky,’ said the ambassador’s wife.

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