Page 445 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

property. The steward did not take up much time. He
simply gave Alexey Alexandrovitch the money he needed
together with a brief statement of the position of his
affairs, which was not altogether satisfactory, as it had

happened that during that year, owing to increased
expenses, more had been paid out than usual, and there
was a deficit. But the doctor, a celebrated Petersburg
doctor, who was an intimate acquaintance of Alexey
Alexandrovitch, took up a great deal of time. Alexey
Alexandrovitch had not expected him that day, and was
surprised at his visit, and still more so when the doctor
questioned him very carefully about his health, listened to
his breathing, and tapped at his liver. Alexey
Alexandrovitch did not know that his friend Lidia
Ivanovna, noticing that he was not as well as usual that
year, had begged the doctor to go and examine him. ‘Do
this for my sake,’ the Countess Lidia Ivanovna had said to
him.
‘I will do it for the sake of Russia, countess,’ replied the
doctor.
‘A priceless man!’ said the Countess Lidia Ivanovna.
The doctor was extremely dissatisfied with Alexey
Alexandrovitch. He found the liver considerably enlarged,
and the digestive powers weakened, while the course of

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