"Yes, of course it would have been much better, Anna Arkadyevna,"

said the architect, "but now it's too late."

"Yes, I take a great interest in it," Anna answered Sviazhsky,

who was expressing his surprise at her knowledge of architecture.

"This new building ought to have been in harmony with the

hospital. It was an afterthought, and was begun without a plan."

Vronsky, having finished his talk with the architect, joined the

ladies, and led them inside the hospital.

Although they were still at work on the cornices outside and were

painting on the ground floor, upstairs almost all the rooms were

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finished. Going up the broad cast-iron staircase to the landing,

they walked into the first large room. The walls were stuccoed

to look like marble, the huge plate-glass windows were already

in, only the parquet floor was not yet finished, and the

carpenters, who were planing a block of it, left their work,

taking off the bands that fastened their hair, to greet the

gentry.

"This is the reception room," said Vronsky. "Here there will be

a desk, tables, and benches, and nothing more."

"This way; let us go in here. Don't go near the window," said

Anna, trying the paint to see if it were dry. "Alexey, the

paint's dry already," she added.

From the reception room they went into the corridor. Here

Vronsky showed them the mechanism for ventilation on a novel

system. Then he showed them marble baths, and beds with

extraordinary springs. Then he showed them the wards one after

another, the storeroom, the linen room, then the heating stove

of a new pattern, then the trolleys, which would make no noise as

they carried everything needed along the corridors, and many

other things. Sviazhsky, as a connoisseur in the latest

mechanical improvements, appreciated everything fully. Dolly

simply wondered at all she had not seen before, and, anxious to

understand it all, made minute inquiries about everything, which

gave Vronsky great satisfaction.

"Yes, I imagine that this will be the solitary example of a

properly fitted hospital in Russia," said Sviazhsky.

"And won't you have a lying-in ward?" asked Dolly. "That's so

much needed in the country. I have often..."

In spite of his usual courtesy, Vronsky interrupted her.

"This is not a lying-in home, but a hospital for the sick, and is

intended for all diseases, except infectious complaints," he

said. "Ah! look at this," and he rolled up to Darya Alexandrovna

an invalid chair that had just been ordered for the

convalescents. "Look." He sat down in the chair and began

moving it. "The patient can't walk--still too weak, perhaps, or

something wrong with his legs, but he must have air, and he

moves, rolls himself along...."




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