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The highest Petersburg society is essentially one: in it everyone

knows everyone else, everyone even visits everyone else But

this great set has its subdivisions Anna Arkadyevna Karenina

had friends and close ties in three different circles of this

highest society One circle was her husband's governues and subordinates,

brought together in theto different social strata Anna found it difficult

now to recall the feeling of almost awe-stricken reverence which

she had at first entertained for these persons Now she knew all

of them as people know one another in a country town; she knew

their habits and weaknesses, and where the shoe pinched each one

of them She knew their relations with one another and with the

head authorities, kneas for whom, and how each one

reed

But the circle of political, masculine interests had never

interested her, in spite of countess Lidia Ivanovna's influence,

and she avoided it

Another little set hich Anna was in close relations was the

one by means of which Alexey Alexandrovitch had made his career

The center of this circle was the Countess Lidia Ivanovna It

was a set odly women,