And Dolly saw that the tears stood in her eyes.

And Dolly saw that the tears stood in her eyes. She pressed Anna's hand in silence.

`Well, what are these buildings? How many there are of them!' After a moment's silence she repeated her question.

`These are the servant's houses, stud farm, and stables,' answered Anna. `And there the park begins. It had all gone to ruin, but Alexei had everything renewed. He is very fond of this place, and, what I never expected, he has become intensely interested in looking after it. But his is such a rich nature! Whatever he takes up, he does splendidly. So far from being bored by it, he works with passionate interest. He - with his temperament as I know it - he has become careful and businesslike, a first-rate manager, he positively reckons every penny in his management of the land. But only in that. When it's a question of tens of thousands, he doesn't think of money.' She spoke with that gleefully sly smile with which women often talk of the secret characteristics - only known to them - of those they love. `Do you see that big building? That's the new hospital. I believe it will cost over a hundred thousand; that's his dada just now. And do you know how it all came about? The peasants asked him for some meadowland, I think it was, at a cheaper rate, and he refused, and I accused him of being miserly. Of course it was not really because of that, but because of everything together - he began this hospital to prove, do you see, that he was not miserly about money. C'est une petitesse, if you like, but I love him all the more for it. And now you'll see the house in a moment. It was his grandfather's house, and he has had nothing changed outside.'

`How beautiful!' said Dolly, looking with involuntary admiration at the handsome house with columns, standing out among the different-colored greens of the old trees in the garden.

`Isn't it fine? And from the house, from the top, the view is wonderful.'

They drove into a courtyard strewn with gravel and bright with flowers, in which two laborers were at work putting an edging of stones round the light mold of a flower bed, and drew up in a covered entry.