"I remember she was wearing it on your nameday."

"A charming pattern--so simple and refined,--I should have liked

it myself, if she hadn't had it. Something like Varenka's. So

pretty and inexpensive."

"Well, now I think it's done," said Dolly, dropping the syrup

from the spoon.

"When it sets as it drops, it's ready. Cook it a little longer,

Agafea Mihalovna."

"The flies!" said Agafea Mihalovna angrily. "It'll be just the

same," she added.

"Ah! how sweet it is! don't frighten it!" Kitty said suddenly,

looking at a sparrow that had settled on the step and was pecking

at the center of a raspberry.

"Yes, but you keep a little further from the stove," said her

mother.

"_À propos de Varenka_," said Kitty, speaking in French, as they

had been doing all the while, so that Agafea Mihalovna should not

understand them, "you know, mamma, I somehow expect things to be

settled today. You know what I mean. How splendid it would be!"

"But what a famous matchmaker she is!" said Dolly. "How

carefully and cleverly she throws them together!..."

"No; tell me, mamma, what do you think?"

"Why, what is one to think? He" (_he_ meant Sergey Ivanovitch)

"might at any time have been a match for anyone in Russia; now,

of course, he's not quite a young man, still I know ever so many

girls would be glad to marry him even now.... She's a very nice

girl, but he might..."

"Oh, no, mamma, do understand why, for him and for her too,

nothing better could be imagined. In the first place, she's

charming!" said Kitty, crooking one of her fingers.

"He thinks her very attractive, that's certain," assented Dolly.

"Then he occupies such a position in society that he has no need

to look for either fortune or position in his wife. All he needs

is a good, sweet wife--a restful one."

"Well, with her he would certainly be restful," Dolly assented.

"Thirdly, that she should love him. And so it is...that is,

it would be so splendid!...I look forward to seeing them

coming out of the forest--and everything settled. I shall see at

once by their eyes. I should be so delighted! What do you

think, Dolly?"

"But don't excite yourself. It's not at all the thing for you to

be excited," said her mother.

"Oh, I'm not excited, mamma. I fancy he will make her an offer

today."




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