Page 440 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 26

The external relations of Alexey Alexandrovitch and his
wife had remained unchanged. The sole difference lay in
the fact that he was more busily occupied than ever. As in
former years, at the beginning of the spring he had gone
to a foreign watering-place for the sake of his health,
deranged by the winter’s work that every year grew
heavier. And just as always he returned in July and at once
fell to work as usual with increased energy. As usual, too,
his wife had moved for the summer to a villa out of town,
while he remained in Petersburg. From the date of their
conversation after the party at Princess Tverskaya’s he had
never spoken again to Anna of his suspicions and his
jealousies, and that habitual tone of his bantering mimicry
was the most convenient tone possible for his present
attitude to his wife. He was a little colder to his wife. He
simply seemed to be slightly displeased with her for that
first midnight conversation, which she had repelled. In his
attitude to her there was a shade of vexation, but nothing
more. ‘You would not be open with me,’ he seemed to
say, mentally addressing her; ‘so much the worse for you.
Now you may beg as you please, but I won’t be open

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