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"Oh, no, I'm not at all busy," answered Varenka, but at that

moment she had to leave her new friends because two little

Russian girls, children of an invalid, ran up to her.

"Varenka, mamma's calling!" they cried.

And Varenka went after them.

Chapter 32

The particulars which the princess had learned in regard to

Varenka's past and her relations with Madame Stahl were as

follows:

Madame Stahl, of whom some people said that she had worried her

husband out of his life, while others said it was he who had made

her wretched by his immoral behavior, had always been a woman of

weak health and enthusiastic temperament. When, after her

separation from her husband, she gave birth to her only child,

the child had died almost immediately, and the family of Madame

Stahl, knowing her sensibility, and fearing the news would kill

her, had substituted another child, a baby born the same night

and in the same house in Petersburg, the daughter of the chief

cook of the Imperial Household. This was Varenka. Madame Stahl

learned later on that Varenka was not her own child, but she went

on bringing her up, especially as very soon afterwards Varenka

had not a relation of her own living. Madame Stahl had now been

living more than ten years continuously abroad, in the south,

never leaving her couch.