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 the house and have done to it whatever was necessary. Stepan Arkadyevitch, like all guilty husbands, being deeply concerned for his wife's comfort, inspected the house and made arrangements to have everything done that, in his opinion, was necessary. In his opinion it was necessary to have the furniture covered with cretonne, to hang curtains, to clear up the garden, to plant flowers, and to build a bridge across the pond; but he had overlooked many more essential matters, the lack of which afterwards caused Darya Aleksandrovna great annoyance.

Although Stepan strove to be a solicitous husband and father, he never could realize that he had a wife and children. His tastes remained those of a bachelor, and to them he conformed. When he got back to Moscow he proudly assured his wife that everything was in prime order, that the house would be perfection, and he advised her strongly to go there immediately. To Stepan Arkadyevitch his wife's departure to the country was delightful in many ways: it would be healthy for the children, expenses would be lessened, and he would be freer.

Darya Aleksandrovna, on her part, felt that a summer in the country was indispensable for the children, and especially for the youngest little girl, who gained very slowly after the scarlatina. Moreover, she would be freed from petty humiliations, from little duns of the butcher, the fish-dealer, and the baker, which troubled her.

And above all the departure was very pleasant to her for the especial reason that the happy thought had occurred to her to invite her sister Kitty, who was coming home from abroad about the middle of the summer and had been advised to take some cold baths. Kitty wrote her from the Spa that nothing would delight her so much as to spend the rest of the summer with her at Yergushovo, that place that was so full of happy childhood memories for both of them.

The first part of the time country life was very hard for Dolly. She had lived there when she was a child,