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not to blame? All the morning I’ve been trying to take a tone...but such
people ...Why did he come? How happy we were!” she said, breath-
less with the sobs that shook her.
Although nothing had been pursuing them, and there was nothing
to run away from, and they could not possibly have found anything
very delightful on that garden seat, the gardener saw with astonish-
ment that they passed him on their way home with comforted and
radiant faces.
Chapter 15.
After escorting his wife upstairs, Levin went to Dolly’s part of the
house. Darya Alexandrovna, for her part, was in great distress too that
day. She was walking about the room, talking angrily to a little girl, who
stood in the corner roaring.
“And you shall stand all day in the corner, and have your dinner all
alone, and not see one of your dolls, and I won’t make you a new frock,”
she said, not knowing how to punish her.
“Oh, she is a disgusting child!” she turned to Levin. “Where does
she get such wicked propensities?”
“Why, what has she done?” Levin said without much interest, for
he had wanted to ask her advice, and so was annoyed that he had come
at an unlucky moment.
“Grisha and she went into the raspberries, and there...I can’t tell
you really what she did. It’s a thousand pities Miss Elliot’s not with us.
This one sees to nothing—she’s a machine.... Figurez-vous que la
petite?...”
And Darya Alexandrovna described Masha’s crime.
“That proves nothing; it’s not a question of evil propensities at all,
it’s simply mischief,” Levin assured her.
“But you are upset about something? What have you come for?”
asked Dolly. “What’s going on there?”