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 voice of the same woman whom he admired in the picture.

It was Anna, who had been concealed by a lattice-work of climbing plants, and who rose to receive her visitor. And in the dusk of the library Levin recognized the original of the portrait, in a simple dark blue gown, not in the same position, not with the same expression, but with the same lofty beauty which had been represented by the artist in the painting. She was less brilliant in the reality, but the living woman had a new attraction which the portrait lacked.

CHAPTER X

advanced to meet him, and did not conceal the pleasure which his visit caused her. With the ease and simplicity which Levin recognized as characteristic of a woman of the best society, she extended to him a small, energetic hand, introduced him to Vorkuyef, and called his attention to a light-complexioned and pretty little girl—her pupil, she said—who was seated with her work near the table.

"I am very, very glad," she repeated; and in these simple words, spoken by her. Levin found an extraordinary significance. "I have known you and liked you for ever so long, both because of your friendship with Stiva and because of your wife. .... I knew her a very short time, but she gave me the impression of a flower, a lovely flower. And to think! she will soon be a mother!"

She talked freely and without haste, occasionally looking from Levin to her brother, and Levin was conscious that the impression which he produced was excellent, and he immediately felt perfectly at his ease with her and on the simplest and most friendly terms, as if he had known her from childhood.

To Oblonsky, who asked if smoking was allowed, she replied:—

"That is why we have taken refuge in Alekseï's study;"