"I must talk with you of a grave and painful subject. There we
will arrange where to meet. Best of all at my house, where I
will order tea _as you like it_. Urgent. He lays the cross, but
He gives the strength to bear it," she added, so as to give him
some slight preparation. Countess Lidia Ivanovna usually wrote
some two or three letters a day to Alexey Alexandrovitch. She
enjoyed that form of communication, which gave opportunity for a
refinement and air of mystery not afforded by their personal
interviews.