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The highest Petersburg society is essentially one: in it everyone

knows everyone else, everyone even visits everyone else. But this

great set has its subdivisions. Anna Arkadyevna Karenina had

friends and close ties in three different circles of this highest

society. One circle was her husband's government official set,

consisting of his colleagues and subordinates, brought together

in the most various and capricious manner, and belonging to

different social strata. Anna found it difficult now to recall

the feeling of almost awe-stricken reverence which she had at

first entertained for these persons. Now she knew all of them as

people know one another in a country town; she knew their habits

and weaknesses, and where the shoe pinched each one of them. She

knew their relations with one another and with the head

authorities, knew who was for whom, and how each one maintained

his position, and where they agreed and disagreed.