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80
SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY
highest degree absurd. Her whole education had
been directed to the end of making her a brilliant
society woman. She had been accustomed, ever since
the age of seven, to be the queen of all the children’s
balls, to which she was often taken when my parents
lived in large towns. Papa was very proud of her
childish triumphs, of which many traditions
circulated in our family.
" When our Aniuta grows up she ’11 be fit to take
straight to the Court! She would turn the head of
any Crown Prince," papa was accustomed to say,
jestingly, of course; but the misfortune was that not
only we younger children, but Aniuta herself, took the
words in earnest.
In her early youth my sister was very handsome —
tall, slender, with a beautiful complexion, and a mass
of light hair, she might almost be called an ideal
beauty, and she possessed, in addition, a great deal of
special charm. She understood extremely well that
she could play the leading part in any society. And
behold, all of a sudden, she was condemned to the
country, to the wilds, to boredom.
She often came to papa and reproached him, with
tears in her eyes, for keeping her in the country. At
first my father got rid of her with jests, but sometimes
he condescended to explanations, and very rationally
demonstrated to her that, in the present troublous
times, it was the duty of every landed proprietor to
live on his estate. To abandon the estate at the
present moment was equivalent to ruining the family.
Aniuta did not know how to reply to these arguments.
She only felt that she was no better off for all that,
that her youth would not be repeated. After such
conversations she went off to her own room and wept
bitterly.
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