Kitty was to be back from abroad in the middle of the summer, and bathing had been prescribed for her.

Kitty wrote that no prospect was so alluring as to spend the summer with Dolly at Ergushovo, full of childish associations for both of them.

The first days of her existence in the country were very hard for Dolly.

She used to stay in the country as a child, and the impression she had retained of it was that the country was a refuge from all the unpleasantness of the town, that life there, though not luxurious--Dolly could easily make up her mind to that--was cheap and comfortable; that there was plenty of everything, everything was cheap, everything could be got, and children were happy.

But now coming to the country as the head of a family, she perceived that it was all utterly unlike what she had fancied.