Page 918 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

governess, who had during Anna’s illness replaced the
French one, was sitting near the boy knitting a shawl. She
hurriedly got up, curtseyed, and pulled Seryozha.
Alexey Alexandrovitch stroked his son’s hair, answered

the governess’s inquiries about his wife, and asked what
the doctor had said of the baby.
‘The doctor said it was nothing serious, and he ordered
a bath, sir.’
‘But she is still in pain,’ said Alexey Alexandrovitch,
listening to the baby’s screaming in the next room.
‘I think it’s the wet-nurse, sir,’ the Englishwoman said
firmly.
‘What makes you think so?’ he asked, stopping short.
‘It’s just as it was at Countess Paul’s, sir. They gave the
baby medicine, and it turned out that the baby was simply
hungry: the nurse had no milk, sir.’
Alexey Alexandrovitch pondered, and after standing
still a few seconds he went in at the other door. The baby
was lying with its head thrown back, stiffening itself in the
nurse’s arms, and would not take the plump breast offered
it; and it never ceased screaming in spite of the double
hushing of the wet-nurse and the other nurse, who was
bending over her.
‘Still no better?’ said Alexey Alexandrovitch.

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