Page 469 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 30

In the little German watering-place to which the
Shtcherbatskys had betaken themselves, as in all places
indeed where people are gathered together, the usual
process, as it were, of the crystallization of society went
on, assigning to each member of that society a definite and
unalterable place. Just as the particle of water in frost,
definitely and unalterably, takes the special form of the
crystal of snow, so each new person that arrived at the
springs was at once placed in his special place.
Fuerst Shtcherbatsky, sammt Gemahlin und Tochter,
by the apartments they took, and from their name and
from the friends they made, were immediately crystallized
into a definite place marked out for them.
There was visiting the watering-place that year a real
German Fuerstin, in consequence of which the
crystallizing process went on more vigorously than ever.
Princess Shtcherbatskaya wished, above everything, to
present her daughter to this German princess, and the day
after their arrival she duly performed this rite. Kitty made a
low and graceful curtsey in the very simple, that is to say,
very elegant frock that had been ordered her from Paris.

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