closing them in order better to take in the meaning of the words. This was a new habit, which Dolly had never seen in her before. Apparently she interpreted her friend's answer as she wanted, and she looked at Dolly.
"If you have any sins, they will all be blotted out by this visit and by your kind words," she said, and Dolly saw that her eyes were dimmed with tears. She silently took her hand.
"What are those buildings? What a lot of them!" said Dolly again, after a moment of silence.
"Those are the roofs of our buildings,—our barns and stables," replied Anna. "Here our park begins. It was all neglected, but Alekseï has made it new again. He is very fond of this kind of occupation, and to my great surprise he has developed a passion for farming.[1] Ah, his is a rich nature! Whatever he undertakes he excels in. He not only does not get bored, but he is passionately interested in it. I do not know how, but he is making a capital farmer, so economical, almost stingy—but only in farm ways. For things of other sorts he will spend ten thousand rubles and never give it a thought."
She said this with that joyously crafty characteristic smile of women when they speak of the men they love, and the secret peculiarities which they alone know about.
"Do you see that large building? That is a new hospital. I think it will cost him more than a hundred thousand. It is his hobby just now. Do you know what made him build it? The peasants asked him to reduce the rent of some meadows, but he declined to do so, and I told him he was stingy. Of course, it wasn't altogether that, but everything taken together, so he began to build the hospital to prove my charge unjust; c'est une petitesse, perhaps, but I love him the better for it. Now in a moment you'll see the house. It was built by his grandfather, and the outside hasn't been changed at all."
"How beautiful!" cried Dolly, with involuntary sur-
- ↑ Khozyaïstvo
