One of the clever people belonging to the set had called it "the conscience of Petersburg society.

" Alexey Alexandrovitch had the highest esteem for this circle, and Anna with her special gift for getting on with everyone, had in the early days of her life in Petersburg made friends in this circle also.

Now, since her return from Moscow, she had come to feel this set insufferable.

It seemed to her that both she and all of them were insincere, and she felt so bored and ill at ease in that world that she went to see the Countess Lidia Ivanovna as little as possible.