always dressed in the latest
fashion and had always taken trouble over Anna, dressing her elegantly
like a doll, and had taught her to speak French and dance the mazurka
superbly (she had been a governess for five years before her
marriage). Like her mother, Anna could make a new dress out of an
old one, clean gloves with benzine, hire jewels; and, like her
mother, she knew how to screw up her eyes, lisp, assume graceful
attitudes, fly into raptures when necessary, and throw a mournful
and enigmatic look into her eyes. And from her father she had
inherited the dark colour of her hair and eyes, her highly-strung
nerves, and the habit of always making herself look her best.

When, half an hour before setting off for the ball, Modest Alexeitch
went into her room without his coat on, to put his order round his
neck before her pier-glass, dazzled by her beauty and the splendour
of her fresh, ethereal dress, he combed his whiskers complacently
and said:

"So that's what my wife can look like . . . so that's what you can
look like! Anyuta!" he went on, dropping into a tone of solemnity,
"I have made your fortune, and now I beg you to do something for
mine. I beg you to get introduced to the wife of His Excellency!
For God's sake, do! Through her I may get the post of senior reporting
clerk!"

They went to the ball. They reached the Hall of Nobility, the
entrance with the hall porter. They came to the vestibule with the
hat-stands, the fur coats; footmen scurrying about, and ladies with
low necks putting up their fans to screen themselves from the
draughts. There was a smell of gas and of soldiers. When Anna,
walking upstairs on her husband's arm, heard the music and saw
herself full length in the looking-glass in the full glow of the
lights, there was a rush of joy in her heart, and she felt the same
presentiment of happiness as in the moonlight at the station. She
walked in proudly, confidently, for the first time feeling herself
not a girl but a lady, and unconsciously imitating her mother in
her walk and in her manner. And for the first time in her life she
felt rich and free. Even her husband's presence did not oppress
her, for as she crossed the threshold of the hall she had guessed
instinctively that the proximity of an old husband did not detract
from her in the least, but, on the contrary, gave her that shade
of piquant mystery that is so attractive to men. The orchestra was
already playing and the dances had beg