Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART SIX CHAPTER 19
wild animal at the grown-up big people with her bright black eyes, she smiled, unmistakably
pleased at their admiring her, and holding her legs sideways, she pressed
vigorously on her arms, and rapidly drew her whole back up after, and then made
another step forward with her little arms.
But the whole atmosphere of the nursery, and especially the English nurse, Darya
Alexandrovna did not like at all. It was only on the supposition that no good nurse
would have entered so irregular a household as Anna’s that Darya Alexandrovna
could explain to herself how Anna with her insight into people could take such an
unprepossessing, disreputable-looking woman as nurse to her child.
Besides, from a few words that were dropped, Darya Alexandrovna saw at once
that Anna, the two nurses, and the child had no common existence, and that the
mother’s visit was something exceptional. Anna wanted to get the baby her plaything,
and could not find it.
Most amazing of all was the fact that on being asked how many teeth the baby
had, Anna answered wrong, and knew nothing about the two last teeth.
“I sometimes feel sorry I’m so superfluous here,” said Anna, going out of the nursery
and holding up her skirt so as to escape the plaything standing in the doorway.
“It was very different with my first child.”
“I expected it to be the other way,” said Darya Alexandrovna shyly.
“Oh, no! By the way, do you know I saw Seryozha?” said Anna, screwing up her
eyes, as though looking at something far away. “But we’ll talk about that later. You
wouldn’t believe it, I’m like a hungry beggar woman when a full dinner is set before
her, and she does not know what to begin on first. The dinner is you, and the talks
I have before me with you, which I could never have with anyone else; and I don’t
know which subject to begin upon first. Mais je ne vous ferai grace de rien. I must have
everything out with you.”
“Oh, I ought to give you a sketch of the company you will meet with us,” she
went on. “I’ll begin with the ladies. Princess Varvara–you know her, and I know
your opinion and Stiva’s about her. Stiva says the whole aim of her existence is
to prove her superiority over Auntie Katerina Pavlovna: that’s all true; but she’s a
good-natured woman, and I am so grateful to her. In Petersburg there was a moment
when a chaperon was absolutely essential for me. Then she turned up. But really
she is good- natured. She did a great deal to alleviate my position. I see you don’t
understand all the difficulty of my position...there in Petersburg,” she added. “Here
I’m perfectly at ease and happy. Well, of that later on, though. Then Sviazhsky–he’s
the marshal of the district, and he’s a very good sort of a man, but he wants to get
something out of Alexey. You understand, with his property, now that we are settled
in the country, Alexey can exercise great influence. Then there’s Tushkevitch–you
have seen him, you know–Betsy’s admirer. Now he’s been thrown over and he’s
come to see us. As Alexey says, he’s one of those people who are very pleasant if
one accepts them for what they try to appear to be, et puis il est comme il faut, as
Princess Varvara says. Then Veslovsky...you know him. A very nice boy,” she said,
and a sly smile curved her lips. “What’s this wild story about him and the Levins?
Veslovsky told Alexey about it, and we don’t believe it. Il est très gentil et naïf,” she
said again with the same smile. “Men need occupation, and Alexey needs a circle,
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