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How you frightened me!’ said she in reply. ‘Please don’t talk to me about the opera — you know nothing of music. I had better descend to your level and talk about your majolica and engravings. Come now, tell me about the treasures you have picked up lately at the rag fair!’

      ‘Shall I show you? But you don’t understand them.’

      ‘Yes, let me see them. I have learnt from those — what is their name? — the bankers… . They have some splendid engravings. They showed them to us.’

      ‘What? Have you been to the Schuzburgs?’ asked the hostess from her place by the samovar.

      ‘I have, ma chère. They asked my husband and me to dinner, and I was told that the sauce alone at that dinner cost a thousand roubles,’ said the Princess Myagkaya loudly, feeling that everybody was listening. ‘And a very nasty sauce it was too, something green! We had to invite them, and I gave them a sauce that cost eighty-five kopeks and satisfied every one. I can’t afford thousand-rouble sauces.’

      ‘She is unique!’ said the hostess.

      ‘Wonderful!’ said some one else.

      The effect produced by the Princess Myagkaya’s words was always the same; and the secret of that effect lay in the fact that although she often — as at that moment — spoke not quite to the point, her words were simple and had a meaning. In the Society in which she lived words of that kind produced the effect of a most witty joke. The Princess Myagkaya did not understand why her words had such an effect, but was aware that they did and availed herself of it.

      As while she was speaking everybody listened to her and the conversation in the circle round the ambassador’s wife stopped, the hostess wished to make one circle of the whole company, and turning to the ambassador’s wife, said:

      ‘Will you really not have a cup of tea? You should come and join us here.’

      ‘No, we are very comfortable here,’ replied the ambassador’s wife smiling, and she continued the interrupted conversation.

      It was a very pleasant conversation. They were disparaging the Karenins, husband and wife.

      ‘Anna has changed very much since her trip to Moscow.

      ‘There is something strange about her,’ said a friend of Anna’s.

      ‘The chief change is that she has brought back with her the shadow of Alexis Vronsky,’ said the ambassador’s wife.

      ‘Well, why not? Grimm has a fable called “The Man Without a Shadow” — about a man who lost his shadow as a punishment for something or other. I never could understand why it was a punishment! But for a woman to be without a shadow can’t be pleasant.’

      ‘Yes, but a woman with a shadow generally ends badly,’ said Anna’s friend.

      ‘A murrain on your tongue!’ suddenly remarked the Princess Myagkaya, hearing these words. ‘Anna Karenina is a splendid woman. I don’t like her husband, but I am very fond of her.’

      ‘Why don’t you like her husband? He is such a remarkable man,’ said the ambassador’s wife. ‘My husband says there are few statesmen like him in Europe.’

      ‘My husband tells me the same, but I don’t believe it,’ replied the Princess Myagkaya. ‘If our husbands didn’t talk, we should see things as they really are; and it’s my opinion that Karenin is simply stupid. I say it in a whisper! Does this not make everything quite clear? Formerly, when I was told to consider him wise, I kept trying to, and thought I was stupid myself because I was unable to perceive his wisdom; but as soon as I said to myself, he’s stupid (only in a whisper of course), it all became quite clear! Don’t you think so?’

      ‘How malicious you are to-day!’

      ‘Not at all. I have no choice. One of us is stupid, and you know it’s impossible to say so of oneself.’

      ‘No one is satisfied with his position, but every one is satisfied with his wit,’ remarked the attaché, quoting some French lines.

      ‘That’s it, that’s just it,’ rejoined the Princess Myagkaya, turning quickly toward him. ‘But the point is, that I won’t abandon Anna to you. She is so excellent, so charming! What is she to do, if every one is in love with her and follows her about like a shadow?’

      ‘But I don’t even think of blaming her!’ Anna’s friend said, justifying herself.

      ‘If no one follows us about like a shadow, that does not prove that we have a right to judge her.’

      Having snubbed Anna’s friend handsomely, the Princess Myagkaya rose with the ambassador’s wife and joined those at the table, where there was a general conversation about the King of Prussia.

      ‘Whom were you backbiting there?’ asked Betsy.

      ‘The Karenins. The Princess was characterizing Karenin,’ replied the ambassador’s wife with a smile, seating herself at the table.

      ‘It’s a pity we did not hear it!’ said the hostess, glancing at the door. ‘Ah! Here you are at last!’ she added, smilingly addressing Vronsky as he entered the room.

      Vronsky not only knew everybody in the room, but saw them all every day, so he entered in the calm manner of one who rejoins those from whom he has parted only a short time before.

      ‘Where do I come from?’ he said in reply to the ambassador’s wife. ‘There’s no help for it, I must confess that I come from the Théâtre Bouffe. I have been there a hundred times, and always with fresh pleasure. Excellent! I know it’s a disgrace, but at the opera I go to sleep, while at the Bouffe I stay till the last minute enjoying it. Tonight …’

      And he named a French actress and was about to tell them something about her when the ambassador’s wife stopped him with mock alarm.

      ‘Please don’t talk about those horrors!’

      ‘All right, I won’t — especially as everybody knows those horrors!’

      ‘And everybody would go there if it were considered the thing, as the opera is,’ put in the Princess Myagkaya.

      Chapter 7

      STEPS were heard at the entrance, and the Princess Betsy, knowing that it was Anna, glanced at Vronsky. He was looking at the door with a strange new expression on his face. He gazed joyfully, intently, and yet timidly at the lady who was entering, and slowly rose from his seat. Anna entered the room holding herself, as usual, very erect, and without changing the direction of her eyes, approached her hostess, walking with that quick, firm yet light step which distinguished her from other Society women. She shook hands, smilingly, and with the same smile looked round at Vronsky. He bowed low and moved a chair toward her.

      Anna responded only by an inclination of the head, though she blushed and frowned. But immediately, nodding rapidly to her acquaintances and pressing the hands extended to her, she turned again to her hostess:

      ‘I have just been at the Countess Lydia’s. I meant to come sooner, but could not get away. Sir John was there — he is very interesting.’

      ‘Oh, that missionary?’

      ‘Yes, he was telling us about Indian life. It was very interesting.’ The conversation, interrupted by her entrance, again burnt up like the flame of a lamp that has been blown about.

      ‘Sir John! Oh yes, Sir John! I have seen him. He speaks very well. The elder Vlasyeva is quite in love with him.’

      ‘And is it true that the younger Vlasyeva is going to be married to Topov?’

      ‘Yes; they say it’s quite settled.’

      ‘I am surprised at her parents. They say it’s a love match.’

      ‘Love match! What antediluvian ideas you have! Who talks of love nowadays?’ said the ambassador’s wife.

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