TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 19[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 19 Left alone, Darya Alexandrovna, with a good housewife's 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 taffeta pillowcases on the small 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 that Dolly's, 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 arsheenes of nainsook at sixty-five kopecks the yard, which was a matter of fifteen roubles, besides the cutting out and making, and these fifteen roubles had been saved. But before the maid she felt, if not exactly ashamed, at least uncomfortable.
Darya Alexandrovna had a great sense of relief when Annushka, whom she had known for years, walked in. The smart maid was sent for to go to her mistress, and Annushka remained with Darya Alexandrovna.
Annushka was obviously much pleased at that lady's arrival, and began to chatter away without a pause. Dolly observed that she was longing to express her opinion in regard to her mistress's position, especially as to the love and devotion of the Count to Anna Arkadyevna, but Dolly carefully interrupted her whenever she began to speak about this.
`I grew up with Anna Arkadyevna; my lady's dearer to me than anything.
Well, it's not for us to judge. And, to be sure, there seems so much love...'
`Kindly order these things washed for me, please,' Darya Alexandrovna cut her short.
`Certainly. We've two women kept specially for washing small things, but most of the linen's done by machinery. The Count goes into everything himself. Ah, what a husband he would make!...'
Dolly was glad when Anna came in, and by her entrance put a stop to Annushka's gossip.
Anna had put on a very simple batiste gown. Dolly scrutinized that simple gown attentively. She knew what it meant, and the price at which such simplicity was obtained.
`An old friend,' said Anna of Annushka.
Anna was not embarrassed now. She was perfectly composed and at ease. Dolly saw that she had now completely recovered from the impression her arrival had made on her, and had assumed that superficial, careless tone which, as it were, closed the door on that compartment in which her deeper feelings and intimate meditations were kept.
`Well, Anna, and how is your little girl?' asked Dolly.
`Annie?' (This was what she called her little daughter Anna.)`Very well. She has got on wonderfully. Would you like to see her? Come, I'll show her to you. We had a terrible bother,' she began telling her, `over nurses. We had an Italian wet nurse. A good creature, but so stupid!
We wanted to get rid of her, but the baby is so used to her that we've gone on keeping her still.'
`But how have you managed?...' Dolly was beginning a question as to what name the little girl would have; but noticing a sudden frown on Anna's face, she changed the drift of her question. `How did you manage?
Have you weaned her yet?'
But Anna had understood.
`You didn't mean to ask that? You meant to ask about her surname.
Yes? That worries Alexei. She has no name - that is, she's a Karenina,'
said Anna, dropping her eyelids till nothing could be seen but the eyelashes meeting. `But we'll talk about all that later,' her face suddenly brightening.
`Come, I'll show her to you. Elle est très gentille . She crawls now.'
In the nursery the luxury which had impressed Dolly in the whole house struck her still more. There were little gocarts ordered from England, and appliances for learning to walk, and a sofa after the fashion of a billiard table, purposely constructed for crawling, and swings, and baths, all of special pattern, and modern. They were all English, solid, and of good make, and obviously very expensive. The room was large, and very light and lofty.
When they went in, the baby, with nothing on but her little smock, was sitting in a little elbowchair at the table, having her dinner of broth, which she was spilling all over her little chest. The baby was being fed, and the Russian nurserymaid was evidently sharing her meal. Neither the wet nurse nor the head nurse were there; they were in the next room, from which came the sound of their conversation in the queer French which was their only means of communication.
Hearing Anna's voice, a smart, tall English nurse with a disagreeable face and a dissolute expression walked in at the door, hurriedly shaking her fair curls, and immediately began to defend herself though Anna had not found fault with her. At every word Anna said the English nurse said hurriedly several times, `Yes, my lady.'
The rosy baby with her black eyebrows and hair, her sturdy red little body with tight goose-flesh skin, delighted Darya Alexandrovna in spite of the cross expression with which she stared at the stranger. She positively envied the baby's healthy appearance. She was delighted, too, at the baby's crawling. Not one of her own children had crawled like that.
