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The position seemed hopeless. But in the Oblonskys' household, as

in all families indeed, there was one inconspicuous but most

valuable and useful person, Marya Philimonovna. She soothed her

mistress, assured her that everything would come round (it was

her expression, and Matvey had borrowed it from her), and without

fuss or hurry proceeded to set to work herself. She had

immediately made friends with the bailiff's wife, and on the very

first day she drank tea with her and the bailiff under the

acacias, and reviewed all the circumstances of the position. Very

soon Marya Philimonovna had established her club, so to say,

under the acacias, and there it was, in this club, consisting of

the bailiff's wife, the village elder, and the counting-house

clerk, that the difficulties of existence were gradually smoothed

away, and in a week's time everything actually had come round.