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After tea he went out into the hall to order his horses to be put

in, and, when he came back, he found Darya Alexandrovna greatly

disturbed, with a troubled face, and tears in her eyes. While

Levin had been outside, an incident had occurred which had

utterly shattered all the happiness she had been feeling that

day, and her pride in her children. Grisha and Tanya had been

fighting over a ball. Darya Alexandrovna, hearing a scream in the

nursery, ran in and saw a terrible sight. Tanya was pulling

Grisha's hair, while he, with a face hideous with rage, was

beating her with his fists wherever he could get at her.

Something snapped in Darya Alexandrovna's heart when she saw

this. It was as if darkness had swooped down upon her life; she

felt that these children of hers, that she was so proud of, were

not merely most ordinary, but positively bad, ill-bred children,

with coarse, brutal propensities-wicked children.