Chapter 264

Voitov, who was buying the horse, came in. Anna got up and went out of the room.

Before leaving the house, Vronsky went into her room. She would have pretended to be looking for something on the table, but ashamed of making a pretense, she looked straight in his face with cold eyes.

`What do you want?' she asked in French.

`To get the guarantee for Gambetta - I've sold him,' he said, in a tone which said more clearly than words, `I've no time for discussing things, and it would lead to nothing.'

`I'm not to blame in any way,' he thought. `If she will punish herself, tant pis pour elle.' But as he was going he fancied that she said something, and his heart suddenly ached with pity for her.

`Eh, Anna?' he queried.

`I said nothing,' she answered just as coldly and calmly.

`Oh, nothing, tant pis then,' he thought, feeling cold again, and he turned and went out. As he was going out he caught a glimpse in the looking glass of her face, white, with quivering lips. He even wanted to stop and to say some comforting word to her, but his legs carried him out of the room before he could think what to say. The whole of that day he spent away from home, and when he came in late in the evening the maid told him that Anna Arkadyevna had a headache and begged him not to go in to her.

Chapter 26

Never before had a day been passed in quarrel. Today was the first time. And this was not a quarrel. It was the open acknowledgment of complete coldness. Was it possible to glance at her as he had glanced when he came into the room for the guarantee? - to look at her, see her heart was breaking with despair, and go out without a word with that face of callous composure? He was not merely cold to her, he hated her because he loved another woman - that was clear.

And remembering all the cruel words he had said, Anna supplied, too, the words that he had unmistakably wished to say and could have said to her, and she grew more and more exasperated.

`I won't prevent you,' he might say. `You can go where you like. You were unwilling to be divorced from your husband, no doubt so that you might go back to him. Go back to him. If you want money, I'll give it to you. How many roubles do you want?'