Page 922 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

been ill. I have heard all about it—your anxiety. Yes,
you’re a wonderful husband!’ she said, with a meaning and
affable air, as though she were bestowing an order of
magnanimity on him for his conduct to his wife.

Alexey Alexandrovitch bowed frigidly, and kissing his
wife’s hand, asked how she was.
‘Better, I think,’ she said, avoiding his eyes.
‘But you’ve rather a feverish-looking color,’ he said,
laying stress on the word ‘feverish.’
‘We’ve been talking too much,’ said Betsy. ‘I feel it’s
selfishness on my part, and I am going away.’
She got up, but Anna, suddenly flushing, quickly
caught at her hand.
‘No, wait a minute, please. I must tell you...no, you.’
she turned to Alexey Alexandrovitch, and her neck and
brow were suffused with crimson. ‘I won’t and can’t keep
anything secret from you,’ she said.
Alexey Alexandrovitch cracked his fingers and bowed
his head.
‘Betsy’s been telling me that Count Vronsky wants to
come here to say good-bye before his departure for
Tashkend.’ She did not look at her husband, and was
evidently in haste to have everything out, however hard it
might be for her. ‘I told her I could not receive him.’

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