Page 569 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

and in the nursery, so that the beds had to be carried into
the drawing room. There was no kitchen maid to be
found; of the nine cows, it appeared from the words of the
cowherd-woman that some were about to calve, others

had just calved, others were old, and others again hard-
uddered; there was not butter nor milk enough even for
the children. There were no eggs. They could get no
fowls; old, purplish, stringy cocks were all they had for
roasting and boiling. Impossible to get women to scrub
the floors—all were potato-hoeing. Driving was out of the
question, because one of the horses was restive, and bolted
in the shafts. There was no place where they could bathe;
the whole of the river-bank was trampled by the cattle and
open to the road; even walks were impossible, for the
cattle strayed into the garden through a gap in the hedge,
and there was one terrible bull, who bellowed, and
therefore might be expected to gore somebody. There
were no proper cupboards for their clothes; what
cupboards there were either would not close at all, or
burst open whenever anyone passed by them. There were
no pots and pans; there was no copper in the washhouse,
nor even an ironing-board in the maids’ room.
Finding instead of peace and rest all these, from her
point of view, fearful calamities, Darya Alexandrovna was

568 of 1759