Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/746

 "What an absurdity!" exclaimed Agafya Mikhaïlovna. "It would be the same anyway," she added.

"Oh! what a beauty he is! Don't scare him!" suddenly exclaimed Kitty, looking at a sparrow which perched on the rail, and, turning the heart of a berry over, began to peck at it.

"Yes, but you ought to be farther away from the charcoal," said her mother.

"À propos de Varenka," said Kitty in French, in which language indeed they had been speaking all the time so that Agafya Mikhaïlovna might not understand them, "do you know, maman, that I somehow expect something decided. You know what I mean. How nice it would be."

"What a master-hand at matchmaking you are," exclaimed Dolly. "How adroitly she has brought them together."

"No, but tell me, maman, what do you think of it?"

"What do I think of it? He can at any time have his choice of all the best in Russia;" by he she meant Sergyeï Ivanovitch. "He is not so young as he was, but still I know many would set their caps for him. She is very good, but he might...."

"No, indeed, you know perfectly well that nothing better could be imagined for either of them. In the first place, she is charming," said Kitty, bending down one finger.

"She pleases him very much, that is true," said Dolly, in confirmation.

"In the next place, he has such a position in the world that it would make no difference to him what his wife's property or social standing was. He needs only one thing — a sweet, pretty, even-tempered wife."

"Yes, he might be very happy with her," said Dolly, in confirmation of this also.

"In the third place, she must love him, and so it is now.... and so it would be perfectly lovely.... I expect when they come in from the woods it will be all decided. I shall read it instantly in their eyes. I should be so glad. .... What do you think about it, Dolly?"