"Nikolay Ivanitch was struck," she said, meaning Sviazhsky, "at the progress the new building had made since he was here last; but I am there every day, and every day I wonder at the rate at which it grows."
"It’s first-rate working with his excellency," said the architect with a smile (he was respectful and composed, though with a sense of his own dignity). "It’s a very different matter to have to do with the district authorities. Where one would have to write out sheaves of papers, here I call upon the count, and in three words we settle the business."
"The American way of doing business," said Sviazhsky, with a smile.
"Yes, there they build in a rational fashion..."
The conversation passed to the misuse of political power in the United States, but Anna quickly brought it round to an
