Two days later, Marya Dmitrievna visited Vassilyevskoe according to her promise, with all her young people.

The little girls ran at once into the garden, while Marya Dmitrievna languidly walked through the rooms and languidly admired everything.

She regarded her visit to Lavretsky as a sign of great condescension, almost as a deed of charity.

She smiled graciously when Anton and Apraxya kissed her hand in the old-fashioned house-servants' style; and in a weak voice, speaking through her nose, asked for some tea.

To the great vexation of Anton, who had put on knitted white gloves for the purpose, tea was not handed to the grand lady visitor by him, but by Lavretsky's hired valet, who in the old man's words, had not a notion of what was proper.