Page 234 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Ah! We are acquainted, I believe,’ said Alexey
Alexandrovitch indifferently, giving his hand.
‘You set off with the mother and you return with the
son,’ he said, articulating each syllable, as though each

were a separate favor he was bestowing.
‘You’re back from leave, I suppose?’ he said, and
without waiting for a reply, he turned to his wife in his
jesting tone: ‘Well, were a great many tears shed at
Moscow at parting?’
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 much,’ she responded in the same jesting tone,

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