Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/836

 "Yes, I think this hospital will be the only one of the kind in Russia," remarked Sviazhsky.

"Shall you not have a lying-in department?" asked Dolly. "That is so necessary in this country. I have often thought ...."

In spite of his politeness, Vronsky interrupted her.

"This is not an obstetrical institution, but a hospital, and is meant for all except infectious diseases," said he. "And now look at this," and he showed Darya Aleksandrovna a newly imported chair designed for convalescents. "Will you look at it, please?" He sat down in the chair and began to move it along. "He can't walk.... or he is still weak, or he has a lame leg, but still he must have the air, and so he goes out and enjoys himself!"

Darya Aleksandrovna was interested in everything; everything pleased her very much, but, more than all, Vronsky himself pleased her with his natural naïve enthusiasm.

"Yes, he is certainly a good, lovable man," she thought, not listening to what he said, but looking at him and trying to penetrate his expression, and then momentarily looking at Anna. He pleased her so much with his animation that she understood how it was that Anna came to love him.

"; the princess must be tired, and the horses will not interest her," said Vronsky to Anna, who had proposed to show Dolly the stable, where there was a new stallion that Sviazhsky wished to see. "You go there, and I will escort the princess back to the house. And, if you please," added he to Dolly, "we will talk a little on the way, if that will be agreeable."

"I know nothing about horses, so I shall very willingly go with you," said Darya Aleksandrovna.

She saw by Vronsky's face that he wanted something of her, nor was she mistaken. As soon as they had