Liza Merkalova was his wife's niece, and he spent all his leisure hours with her.

On meeting Anna Karenina, as he was Alexey Alexandrovitch's enemy in the government, he tried, like a shrewd man and a man of the world, to be particularly cordial with her, the wife of his enemy.

"'Nothing,'" he put in with a subtle smile, "that's the very best way.

I told you long ago," he said, turning to Liza Merkalova, "that if you don't want to be bored, you mustn't think you're going to be bored.