Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/367

 "Ish tui! ain't she lovely, now? White as sugar!" said one, pointing to Tania, and nodding her head. "But thin...."

"Yes; because she has been ill."

"Vish tui," said still another, pointing to the youngest child.

"It seems you don't take him into the water, do you?"

"No," said Darya Aleksandrovna, proudly. " e is only three months old."

"You don't say so!"

"And have you any children?"

"I've had four; two are alive, a boy and a girl. I weaned the youngest before Lent."

"How old is she?"

"Well, she is going into her second year."

"Why do you nurse her so long?"

"It's our way: three springs." ....

And then the woman asked Darya Aleksandrovna about the birth of her baby: did she have a hard time? where was her husband? would he come often?

Darya Aleksandrovna was reluctant to part with the peasant women, so delightful did she find the conversation with them, so perfectly identical were their interests and hers. And it was more pleasant to her than anything else to see how evidently all these women were filled with admiration because she had so many and such lovely children. The women made Darya Aleksandrovna laugh, and offended Miss Hull for the very reason that she was the cause of their unaccountable laughter. One of the young women gazed with all her eyes at the English governess, who was dressing last; and, when she put on the third petticoat, she could not restrain herself any longer, but burst out laughing:—

"Ish tui! she put on one, and then she put on another, and she has n't got them all on yet!" and they all broke into loud laughter.