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She smiled at his praise, and continued to look about the room

over his shoulder. She was not like a girl at her first ball, for

whom all faces in the ballroom melt into one vision of fairyland.

And she was not a girl who had gone the stale round of balls till

every face in the ballroom was familiar and tiresome. But she was

in the middle stage between these two; she was excited, and at

the same time she had sufficient self-possession to be able to

observe. In the left corner of the ballroom she saw the cream of

society gathered together. There-incredibly naked-was the beauty

Lidi, Korsunsky's wife; there was the lady of the house; there

shone the bald head of Krivin, always to be found where the best

people were. In that direction gazed the young men, not venturing

to approach. There, too, she descried Stiva, and there she saw

the exquisite figure and head of Anna in a black velvet gown. And

he was there. Kitty had not seen him since the evening she

refused Levin.