to have too many of these public duties, just as in old times there were so many chinovniks that there was a chinovnik for everything; so now every one is becoming a public functionary. Alekseï has been here six months, and is already a member of five or six different public commissions — wardenship,[1] judge, town councilman, juryman — I don't know what else. Du train que cela va all his time will be spent on it. And I am afraid if these things are multiplied so, that it will be only a matter of form. You have ever so many offices, Nikolaï Ivanuitch, have you not? at least twenty, haven't you?" she asked, turning toward Sviazhsky.
Anna spoke jestingly, but in her tone there was a shade of irritation. Darya Aleksandrovna, who was watching Anna and Vronsky attentively, immediately noticed it. She saw also that the count's face assumed a resolute and obstinate expression, and that the Princess Varvara made haste to talk about some Petersburg acquaintances, so as to change the subject; and, remembering what Vronsky had told her in the garden about his pleasure in activity, she felt certain that this conversation about public activities had something to do with a secret quarrel between Vronsky and Anna.
The dinner, the wines, the service, were luxurious, but everything seemed to Darya Aleksandrovna formal and impersonal, like the state dinners and balls that she had seen, and on an ordinary day and in a small circle it made a disagreeable impression on her.
After dinner they sat down on the terrace. Then they began to play lawn-tennis. The players, dividing into two sides, took their places on the carefully rolled and smoothly shaven croquet-ground, on which the net was stretched between gilded posts. Darya Aleksandrovna was invited to play, but it took a long time before she learned how, and when she got an idea of the game she felt so tired that she went and sat down by the Princess Varvara and only watched the players. Her partner, Tushkievitch, also ceased playing, but the others continued the game a long time. Sviazhsky and
- ↑ Popechitelstvo.
