Emma Watson Pussy
Books:
Anna Karenina
War And Peace
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kissed her
hand. "I think the big balcony room."
"Oh, no, thats too far off! Better in the corner room, we shall
see each other more. Come, lets go up," said Anna, as she gave
her favorite horse the sugar the footman had brought her.
"_Et vous oubliez votre devoir_," she said to Veslovsky, who came
out too on the steps.
"_Pardon, jen ai tout plein les poches_," he answered, smiling,
putting his fingers in his waistcoat pocket.
"_Mais vous venez trop tard_," she said, rubbing her handkerchief
on her hand, which the horse had made wet in taking the sugar.
Anna turned to Dolly. "You can stay some time? For one day
only? Thats impossible!"
"I promised to be back, and the children..." said Dolly, feeling
embarrassed both because she had to get her bag out of the
carriage, and because she knew her face must be covered with
dust.
"No, Dolly, darling!... Well, well see. Come along, come
along!" and Anna led Dolly to her room.
That room was not the smart guest chamber Vronsky had suggested,
but the one of which Anna had said that Dolly would excuse it.
And this room, for which excuse was needed, was more full of
luxury than any in which Dolly had ever stayed, a luxury that
reminded her of the best hotels abroad.
"Well, darling, how happy I am!" Anna said, sitting down in her
riding habit for a moment beside Dolly. "Tell me about all of
you. Stiva I had only a glimpse of, and he cannot tell one
about the children. How is my favorite, Tanya? Quite a big
girl, I expect?"
"Yes, shes very tall," Darya Alexandrovna answered shortly,
surprised herself that she should respond so coolly about her
children. "We are having a delightful stay at the Levins," she
added.
"Oh, if I had known," said Anna, "that you do not despise me!...
You might have all come to us. Stivas an old friend and a great
friend of Alexeys, you know," she added, and suddenly she
blushed.
"Yes, but we are all..." Dolly answered in confusion.
"But in my delight Im talking nonsense. The one thing, darling,
is that I am so glad to have you!" said Anna, kissing her again.
"You havent told me yet how and what you think about me, and I
keep wanting to know. But Im glad you will see me as I am.
The chief thing I shouldnt like would be for people to imagine I
want to prove anything. I dont want to prove anything; I
merely want to live, to do no one harm but myself. I have the
right to do that, havent I? But it is a big subject, and well
talk over everything properly later. Now Ill go and dress and
send a maid to you."
Chapter 19
Left alone, Darya Alexandrovna, with a good housewifes eye,
scanned her room. All she had seen in entering the house and
walking through it, and all she saw now in her room, gave her an
impression of wealth and sumptuousness and of that modern
European luxury of which she had only read in English novels, but
had never seen in Russia and in the country. Everything was new
from the new French hangings on the walls to the carpet which
covered the whole floor. The bed had a spring mattress, and a
special sort of bolster and silk pillowcases on the little
pillows. The marble washstand, the dressing table, the little
sofa, the tables, the bronze clock on the chimney piece, the
window curtains, and the _portieres_ were all new and expensive.
The smart maid, who came in to offer her services, with her hair
done up high, and a gown more fashionable than Dollys, was as
new and expensive as the whole room. Darya Alexandrovna liked
her neatness, her deferential and obliging manners, but she felt
ill at ease with her. She felt ashamed of her seeing the patched
dressing jacket that had unluckily been packed by mistake for
her. She was ashamed of the very patches and darned places of
which she had been so proud at home. At home it had been so
clear that for six dressing jackets there would be needed
twenty-four yards of nainsook at sixteen pence the yard, which
was a matter of thirty shillings besides the cutting-out and
making, and these thirty shillings had been saved. But before
the maid she felt,
Anna Karenina page 352 Anna Karenina page 354
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