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wrote to her husband, “I have received your letter. —A.”; and, ringing
the bell, gave it to the footman.
“We are not going,” she said to Annushka, as she came in.
“Not going at all?”
“No; don’t unpack till tomorrow, and let the carriage wait. I’m going
to the princess’s.”
“Which dress am I to get ready?” Chapter 17.
The croquet party to which the Princess Tverskaya had invited
Anna was to consist of two ladies and their adorers. These two ladies
were the chief representatives of a select new Petersburg circle, nick-
named, in imitation of some imitation, les sept merveilles du monde.
These ladies belonged to a circle which, though of the highest society,
was utterly hostile to that in which Anna moved. Moreover, Stremov,
one of the most influential people in Petersburg, and the elderly ad-
mirer of Liza Merkalova, was Alexey Alexandrovitch’s enemy in the
political world. From all these considerations Anna had not meant to
go, and the hints in Princess Tverskaya’s note referred to her refusal.
But now Anna was eager to go, in the hope of seeing Vronsky.
Anna arrived at Princess Tverskaya’s earlier than the other guests.
At the same moment as she entered, Vronsky’s footman, with side-
whiskers combed out like a Kammerjunker, went in too. He stopped at
the door, and, taking off his cap, let her pass. Anna recognized him, and
only then recalled that Vronsky had told her the day before that he
would not come. Most likely he was sending a note to say so.
As she took off her outer garment in the hall, she heard the foot-
man, pronouncing his “r’s” even like a Kammerjunker, say, “From the
count for the princess,” and hand the note.
She longed to question him as to where his master was. She longed