Page 819 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

There were two circumstances a little unpleasant, but
these two circumstances were drowned in the sea of good-
humored gaiety which flooded the soul of Stepan
Arkadyevitch. These two circumstances were: first, that on

meeting Alexey Alexandrovitch the day before in the
street he had noticed that he was cold and reserved with
him, and putting the expression of Alexey
Alexandrovitch’s face and the fact that he had not come to
see them or let them know of his arrival with the rumors
he had heard about Anna and Vronsky, Stepan
Arkadyevitch guessed that something was wrong between
the husband and wife.
That was one disagreeable thing. The other slightly
disagreeable fact was that the new head of his department,
like all new heads, had the reputation already of a terrible
person, who got up at six o’clock in the morning, worked
like a horse, and insisted on his subordinates working in
the same way. Moreover, this new head had the further
reputation of being a bear in his manners, and was,
according to all reports, a man of a class in all respects the
opposite of that to which his predecessor had belonged,
and to which Stepan Arkadyevitch had hitherto belonged
himself. On the previous day Stepan Arkadyevitch had
appeared at the office in a uniform, and the new chief had

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