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The countess exchanged glances with Anna Mikhaylovna. The latter

understood that she was being asked to entertain this young man,

and sitting down beside him she began to speak about his father;

but he answered her, as he had the countess, only in

monosyllables. The other guests were all conversing with one

another. "The Razumovskis... It was charming... You are very

kind... Countess Apraksina..." was heard on all sides. The

countess rose and went into the ballroom.

"Marya Dmitrievna?" came her voice from there.

"Herself," came the answer in a rough voice, and Marya Dmitrievna

entered the room.

All the unmarried ladies and even the married ones except the

very oldest rose. Marya Dmitrievna paused at the door. Tall and

stout, holding high her fifty-year-old head with its gray curls,

she stood surveying the guests, and leisurely arranged her wide

sleeves as if rolling them up. Marya Dmitrievna always spoke in

Russian.