By addressing his wife like this he gave Vronsky to understand

that he wished to be left alone, and, turning slightly towards

him, he touched his hat; but Vronsky turned to Anna Arkadyevna.

"I hope I may have the honor of calling on you," he said.

Alexey Alexandrovitch glanced with his weary eyes at Vronsky.

"Delighted," he said coldly. "On Mondays we're at home. Most

fortunate," he said to his wife, dismissing Vronsky altogether,

"that I should just have half an hour to meet you, so that I can

prove my devotion," he went on in the same jesting tone.

"You lay too much stress on your devotion for me to value it

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much," she responded in the same jesting tone, involuntarily

listening to the sound of Vronsky's steps behind them. "But what

has it to do with me?" she said to herself, and she began asking

her husband how Seryozha had got on without her.

"Oh, capitally! Mariette says he has been very good, And...I

must disappoint you...but he has not missed you as your husband

has. But once more _merci,_ my dear, for giving me a day. Our

dear _Samovar_ will be delighted." (He used to call the Countess

Lidia Ivanovna, well known in society, a samovar, because she was

always bubbling over with excitement.) "She has been continually

asking after you. And, do you know, if I may venture to advise

you, you should go and see her today. You know how she takes

everything to heart. Just now, with all her own cares, she's

anxious about the Oblonskys being brought together."

The Countess Lidia Ivanovna was a friend of her husband's, and

the center of that one of the coteries of the Petersburg world

with which Anna was, through her husband, in the closest

relations.

"But you know I wrote to her?"

"Still she'll want to hear details. Go and see her, if you're

not too tired, my dear. Well, Kondraty will take you in the

carriage, while I go to my committee. I shall not be alone at

dinner again," Alexey Alexandrovitch went on, no longer in a

sarcastic tone. "You wouldn't believe how I've missed..." And

with a long pressure of her hand and a meaning smile, he put her

in her carriage.




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