Anna Karenina

Chapter 20
"Here's Dolly for you, princess, you were so anxious to see her," said Anna,
coming out with Darya Alexandrovna onto the stone terrace where Princess
Varvara was sitting in the shade at an embroidery frame, working at a cover
for Count Alexey Kirillovitch's easy chair. "She says she doesn't want
anything before dinner, but please order some lunch for her, and I'll go and
look for Alexey and bring them all in."
Princess Varvara gave Dolly a cordial and rather patronizing reception, and
began at once explaining to her that she was living with Anna because she
had always cared more for her than her sister Katerina Pavlovna, the aunt
that had brought Anna up, and that now, when every onehad abandoned
Anna, she thought it her duty to help her in this most difficult period of
transition.
"Her husband will give her a divorce, and then I shall go back to my
solitude; but now I can be of use, and I am doing my duty, however
difficult it may be for me--not like some other people. And how sweet it is
of you, how right of you to have come! They live like the best of married
couples; it's for God to judge them, not for us. And didn't Biryuzovsky and
Madame Avenieva...and Sam Nikandrov, and Vassiliev and Madame
Mamonova, and Liza Neptunova... Did no one say anything about them?
And it has ended by their being received by everyone. And then, c'est un
interieur si joli, si comme il faut. Tout-a-fait a l'anglaise. On se reunit le
matin au breakfast, et puis on se separe. Everyone does as he pleases till
dinnertime. Dinner at seven o'clock. Stiva did very rightly to send you. He
needs their support. You know that through his mother and brother he can
do anything. And then they do so much good. He didn't tell you about his
hospital? Ce sera admirable--everything from Paris."
Their conversation was interrupted by Anna, who had found the men of the