“ À propos de Varenka ,” said Kitty, speaking in French, as they had been doing all the while, so that Agafea Mihalovna should not understand them, “you know, mamma, I somehow expect things to be settled today. You know what I mean. How splendid it would be!”

“But what a famous matchmaker she is!” said Dolly. “How carefully and cleverly she throws them together!⁠ ⁠…”

“No; tell me, mamma, what do you think?”

“Why, what is one to think? He” ( he meant Sergey Ivanovitch) “might at any time have been a match for anyone in Russia; now, of course, he’s not quite a young man, still I know ever so many girls would be glad to marry him even now.⁠ ⁠… She’s a very nice girl, but he might.⁠ ⁠…”