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The ball was only just beginning as Kitty and her mother walked

up the great staircase, flooded with light, and lined with

flowers and footmen in powder and red coats. From the rooms came

a constant, steady hum, as from a hive, and the rustle of

movement; and while on the landing between trees they gave last

touches to their hair and dresses before the mirror, they heard

from the ballroom the careful, distinct notes of the fiddles of

the orchestra beginning the first waltz. A little old man in

civilian dress, arranging his gray curls before another mirror,

and diffusing an odor of scent, stumbled against them on the

stairs, and stood aside, evidently admiring Kitty, whom he did

not know. A beardless youth, one of those society youths whom the

old Prince Shtcherbatsky called "young bucks," in an exceedingly

open waistcoat, straightening his white tie as he went, bowed to

them, and after running by, came back to ask Kitty for a

quadrille.