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It was characteristic of Kitty that she always imagined

everything in people in the most favorable light possible,

especially so in those she did not know. And now as she made

surmises as to who people were, what were their relations to one

another, and what they were like, Kitty endowed them with the

most marvelous and noble characters, and found confirmation of

her idea in her observations.

Of these people the one that attracted her most was a Russian

girl who had come to the watering-place with an invalid Russian

lady, Madame Stahl, as everyone called her. Madame Stahl belonged

to the highest society, but she was so ill that she could not

walk, and only on exceptionally fine days made her appearance at

the springs in an invalid carriage. But it was not so much from

ill-health as from pride-so Princess Shtcherbatskaya interpreted

it-that Madame Stahl had not made the acquaintance of anyone

among the Russians there. The Russian girl looked after Madame

Stahl, and besides that, she was, as Kitty observed, on friendly

terms with all the invalids who were seriously ill, and there

were many of them at the springs, and looked after them in the

most natural way. This Russian girl was not, as Kitty gathered,

related to Madame Stahl, nor was she a paid attendant.