"_Oh, ja,_" answered the German. _"Es it ein ganz einfaches Ding,"_

and he began to explain the construction of the machine.

"It's a pity it doesn't bind too. I saw one at the Vienna

exhibition, which binds with a wire," said Sviazhsky. "They

would be more profitable in use."

_"Es kommt drauf an.... Der Preis vom Draht muss ausgerechnet

werden."_ And the German, roused from his taciturnity, turned to

Vronsky. _"Das lässt sich ausrechnen, Erlaucht."_ The German was

just feeling in the pocket where were his pencil and the

notebook he always wrote in, but recollecting that he was at a

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dinner, and observing Vronsky's chilly glance, he checked

himself. _"Zu compliziert, macht zu viel Klopot,"_ he concluded.

_"Wünscht man Dochots, so hat man auch Klopots,"_ said Vassenka

Veslovsky, mimicking the German. _"J'adore l'allemand,"_ he

addressed Anna again with the same smile.

_"Cessez,"_ she said with playful severity.

"We expected to find you in the fields, Vassily Semyonitch," she

said to the doctor, a sickly-looking man; "have you been there?"

"I went there, but I had taken flight," the doctor answered

with gloomy jocoseness.

"Then you've taken a good constitutional?"

"Splendid!"

"Well, and how was the old woman? I hope it's not typhus?"

"Typhus it is not, but it's taking a bad turn."

"What a pity!" said Anna, and having thus paid the dues of

civility to her domestic circle, she turned to her own friends.

"It would be a hard task, though, to construct a machine from

your description, Anna Arkadyevna," Sviazhsky said jestingly.

"Oh, no, why so?" said Anna with a smile that betrayed that she

knew there was something charming in her disquisitions upon the

machine that had been noticed by Sviazhsky. This new trait of

girlish coquettishness made an unpleasant impression on Dolly.

"But Anna Arkadyevna's knowledge of architecture is marvelous,"

said Tushkevitch.

"To be sure, I heard Anna Arkadyevna talking yesterday about

plinths and damp-courses," said Veslovsky. "Have I got it

right?"

"There's nothing marvelous about it, when one sees and hears so

much of it," said Anna. "But, I dare say, you don't even know

what houses are made of?"

Darya Alexandrovna saw that Anna disliked the tone of raillery

that existed between her and Veslovsky, but fell in with it

against her will.

Vronsky acted in this matter quite differently from Levin. He

obviously attached no significance to Veslovsky's chattering; on

the contrary, he encouraged his jests.