"Call on mamma. She is very anxious to see you," she said, and,
feeling that she was lying, and that he understood it, her face turned
a still deeper purple.

"I shall hardly have the time," gloomily answered Nekhludoff,
pretending not to see that she was blushing.

Missy frowned angrily, shrugged her shoulders, and turned to an
elegant officer, who took from her hands the empty teacup and
valiantly carried it to another table, his sword striking every object
it encountered.

"You must also contribute toward the asylum."

"I am not refusing, only I wish to keep my contribution for the
lottery. There I will show all my liberality."

"Don't forget, now," a plainly dissimulating laugh was heard.

The reception day was brilliant, and Anna Ignatievna was delighted.

"Mika told me that you busy yourself in the prisons. I understand it
very well," she said to Nekhludoff. "Mika"--she meant her stout
husband, Maslenikoff--"may have his faults, but you know that he is
kind. All these unfortunate prisoners are his children. He does not
look on them in any other light. Il est d'une bonté----"

She stopped, not finding words to express bonté of a husband, and
immediately, smiling, turned to an old, wrinkled woman in
lilac-colored bows who had just entered.