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 body. He cured the Countess Bezzubof, and she fell so in love with him that she has adopted him."

"How! adopted him?"

"Yes, adopted him. He is n't Landau any more, but Count Bezzubof. But Lidia—and I like her very much, in spite of her crankiness—must needs be smitten with him; and nothing that she and Alekseï Aleksandrovitch take up is decided without consulting him. Your sister's fate is, therefore, in the hands of this Count Bezzubof, alias Landau."

CHAPTER XXI

an excellent dinner with Bartnyansky, and considerable cognac, Stepan Arkadyevitch went to the Countess Lidia Ivanovna's a little later than the hour designated.

"Who is with the countess?.... the Frenchman?" he asked of the Swiss, as he noticed beside Alekseï Aleksandrovitch's well-known overcoat a curious mantle with clasps.

"Alekseï Aleksandrovitch Karenin and the Count Bezzubof," answered the servant, stolidly.

"Princess Miagkaya was right," thought Oblonsky, as he went up-stairs. "Strange! it would be a good thing to cultivate the countess. She has great influence. If she would say a little word in my behalf to Pomorsky, it would be just the thing."

It was still very light outdoors, but the blinds were drawn in the Countess Lidia Ivanovna's little drawingroom, and the lamps were lighted.

At a round table, on which was a lamp, the countess and Alekseï Aleksandrovitch were sitting, engaged in a confidential talk. A short, lean, pale man, with knock-kneed legs and a feminine figure, with long hair falling over his coat-collar, and handsome, glowing eyes, was examining the portraits on the wall at the other end of the room.

Stepan Arkadyevitch, after having greeted the coun-