Emma Watson Pussy
Books:
Anna Karenina
War And Peace
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to obtain a concession, told her that they had finished
their business and were going away next day. Lidia Ivanovna had
already begun to calm down, when the next morning a note was
brought her, the handwriting of which she recognized with horror.
It was the handwriting of Anna Karenina. The envelope was of
paper as thick as bark; on the oblong yellow paper there was a
huge monogram, and the letter smelt of agreeable scent.
"Who brought it?"
"A commissionaire from the hotel."
It was some time before Countess Lidia Ivanovna could sit down to
read the letter. Her excitement brought on an attack of asthma,
to which she was subject. When she had recovered her composure,
she read the following letter in French:
"Madame la Comtesse,
"The Christian feelings with which your heart is filled give me
the, I feel, unpardonable boldness to write to you. I am
miserable at being separated from my son. I entreat permission
to see him once before my departure. Forgive me for recalling
myself to your memory. I apply to you and not to Alexey
Alexandrovitch, simply because I do not wish to cause that
generous man to suffer in remembering me. Knowing your
friendship for him, I know you will understand me. Could you
send Seryozha to me, or should I come to the house at some fixed
hour, or will you let me know when and where I could see him away
from home? I do not anticipate a refusal, knowing the
magnanimity of him with whom it rests. You cannot conceive the
craving I have to see him, and so cannot conceive the gratitude
your help will arouse in me.
Anna"
Everything in this letter exasperated Countess Lidia Ivanovna:
its contents and the allusion to magnanimity, and especially its
free and easy--as she considered--tone.
"Say that there is no answer," said Countess Lidia Ivanovna, and
immediately opening her blotting-book, she wrote to Alexey
Alexandrovitch that she hoped to see him at one oclock at the
levee.
"I must talk with you of a grave and painful subject. There we
will arrange where to meet. Best of all at my house, where I
will order tea _as you like it_. Urgent. He lays the cross, but
He gives the strength to bear it," she added, so as to give him
some slight preparation. Countess Lidia Ivanovna usually wrote
some two or three letters a day to Alexey Alexandrovitch. She
enjoyed that form of communication, which gave opportunity for a
refinement and air of mystery not afforded by their personal
interviews.
Chapter 24
The levee was drawing to a close. People met as they were going
away, and gossiped of the latest news, of the newly bestowed
honors and the changes in the positions of the higher
functionaries.
"If only Countess Marya Borissovna were Minister of War, and
Princess Vatkovskaya were Commander-in-Chief," said a
gray-headed, little old man in a gold-embroidered uniform,
addressing a tall, handsome maid of honor who had questioned him
about the new appointments.
"And me among the adjutants," said the maid of honor, smiling.
"You have an appointment already. Youre over the ecclesiastical
department. And your assistants Karenin."
"Good-day, prince!" said the little old man to a man who came up
to him.
"What were you saying of Karenin?" said the prince.
"He and Putyatov have received the Alexander Nevsky."
"I thought he had it already."
"No. Just look at him," said the little old man, pointing with
his embroidered hat to Karenin in a court uniform with the new
red ribbon across his shoulders, standing in the doorway of the
hall with an influential member of the Imperial Council.
"Pleased and happy as a brass farthing," he added, stopping to
shake hands with a handsome gentleman of the bedchamber of
colossal proportions.
"No; hes looking older," said the gentleman of the bedchamber.
"From overwork. Hes always drawing up projects nowadays. He
wont let a poor devil go nowadays till hes explained it all to
him under heads."
"Looking older, did you say? _Il fait des passions_. I believe
Countess Lidia Ivanovnas jealous now of his wife."
"Oh, come now, please dont say any harm of Countess Lidia
Ivanovna."
"Why, is there any harm in her being in love with Karenin?"
"But is it true Madame Kareninas here?"
"Well, not here in the palace, but in Petersburg. I met her
yesterday with Alexey Vronsky, _bras dessous, bras dessous_,
in the Morsky."
"Cest un homme qui na pas..." the gentleman of the bedchamber
was beginning,
Anna Karenina page 295 Anna Karenina page 297
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