A moment's silence followed, after which Countess Lidia Ivanovna, as though approaching the main topic of conversation, said with a fine smile to Oblonsky: "I've known you for a long while, and am very glad to make a closer acquaintance with you.

_Les amis de nos amis sont nos amis.

_ But to be a true friend, one must enter into the spiritual state of one's friend, and I fear that you are not doing so in the case of Alexey Alexandrovitch.

You understand what I mean?" she said, lifting her fine pensive eyes.