1 The match-making aunt had ascertained and communicated their mutual impression.
2 But Anna did not return alone, but brought with her her old unmarried aunt, Princess Oblonskaya.
3 Princess Shtcherbatskaya had herself been married thirty years ago, her aunt arranging the match.
4 And she remembered how, long, long ago, when she was a girl of seventeen, she had gone with her aunt to Troitsa.
5 And it had become a sort of game among them to sit a close as possible to their aunt, to touch her, hold her little hand, kiss it, play with her ring, or even touch the flounce of her skirt.
6 Either because the children saw that their mother was fond of this aunt, or that they felt a special charm in her themselves, the two elder ones, and the younger following their lead, as children so often do, had clung about their new aunt since before dinner, and would not leave her side.
7 And he began keeping his eyes and ears open, and towards the end of the winter he had discovered a very good berth and had formed a plan of attack upon it, at first from Moscow through aunts, uncles, and friends, and then, when the matter was well advanced, in the spring, he went himself to Petersburg.
8 Princess Varvara gave Dolly a cordial and rather patronizing reception, and began at once explaining to her that she was living with Anna because she had always cared more for her than her sister Katerina Pavlovna, the aunt that had brought Anna up, and that now, when every one had abandoned Anna, she thought it her duty to help her in this most difficult period of transition.