Just as she was leaving the drawing room, a ring was heard in the

hall.

"Who can that be?" said Dolly.

"It's early for me to be fetched, and for anyone else it's late,"

observed Kitty.

"Sure to be someone with papers for me," put in Stepan

Arkadyevitch. When Anna was passing the top of the staircase, a

servant was running up to announce the visitor, while the visitor

himself was standing under a lamp. Anna glancing down at once

recognized Vronsky, and a strange feeling of pleasure and at the

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same time of dread of something stirred in her heart. He was

standing still, not taking off his coat, pulling something out of

his pocket. At the instant when she was just facing the stairs,

he raised his eyes, caught sight of her, and into the expression

of his face there passed a shade of embarrassment and dismay.

With a slight inclination of her head she passed, hearing behind

her Stepan Arkadyevitch's loud voice calling him to come up, and

the quiet, soft, and composed voice of Vronsky refusing.

When Anna returned with the album, he was already gone, and

Stepan Arkadyevitch was telling them that he had called to

inquire about the dinner they were giving next day to a celebrity

who had just arrived. "And nothing would induce him to come up.

What a queer fellow he is!" added Stepan Arkadyevitch.

Kitty blushed. She thought that she was the only person who knew

why he had come, and why he would not come up. "He has been at

home," she thought, "and didn't find me, and thought I should be

here, but he did not come up because he thought it late, and

Anna's here."

All of them looked at each other, saying nothing, and began to

look at Anna's album.

There was nothing either exceptional or strange in a man's

calling at half-past nine on a friend to inquire details of a

proposed dinner party and not coming in, but it seemed strange to

all of them. Above all, it seemed strange and not right to Anna.




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