Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART TWO CHAPTER 29
they were speaking when they said the rider was unhurt, but the horse had broken
its back? She merely smiled with a pretense of irony when he finished, and made no
reply, because she had not heard what he said. Alexey Alexandrovitch had begun
to speak boldly, but as he realized plainly what he was speaking of, the dismay she
was feeling infected him too. He saw the smile, and a strange misapprehension came
over him.
“She is smiling at my suspicions. Yes, she will tell me directly what she told me
before; that there is no foundation for my suspicions, that it’s absurd.”
At that moment, when the revelation of everything was hanging over him, there
was nothing he expected so much as that she would answer mockingly as before
that his suspicions were absurd and utterly groundless. So terrible to him was what
he knew that now he was ready to believe anything. But the expression of her face,
scared and gloomy, did not now promise even deception.
“Possibly I was mistaken,” said he. “If so, I beg your pardon.”
“No, you were not mistaken,” she said deliberately, looking desperately into his
cold face. “You were not mistaken. I was, and I could not help being in despair. I
hear you, but I am thinking of him. I love him, I am his mistress; I can’t bear you;
I’m afraid of you, and I hate you.... You can do what you like to me.”
And dropping back into the corner of the carriage, she broke into sobs, hiding
her face in her hands. Alexey Alexandrovitch did not stir, and kept looking straight
before him. But his whole face suddenly bore the solemn rigidity of the dead, and
his expression did not change during the whole time of the drive home. On reaching
the house he turned his head to her, still with the same expression.
“Very well! But I expect a strict observance of the external forms of propriety
till such time“–his voice shook–”as I may take measures to secure my honor and
communicate them to you.”
He got out first and helped her to get out. Before the servants he pressed her hand,
took his seat in the carriage, and drove back to Petersburg. Immediately afterwards
a footman came from Princess Betsy and brought Anna a note.
“I sent to Alexey to find out how he is, and he writes me he is quite well and
unhurt, but in despair.”
“So he will be here,” she thought. “What a good thing I told him all!”
She glanced at her watch. She had still three hours to wait, and the memories of
their last meeting set her blood in flame.
“My God, how light it is! It’s dreadful, but I do love to see his face, and I do love
this fantastic light.... My husband! Oh! yes.... Well, thank God! everything’s over
with him.”
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