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 words may seem idle and ill-judged; possibly they are the result of mistake on my part. In that case, I beg you to forgive me; but if you yourself feel that there is the least foundation for my remarks, then I earnestly urge you to reflect, and, if your heart inclines you, to confide in me." ....

Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, without noticing the fact, had spoken a very different discourse from the one that he had prepared.

"I have nothing to say." And she added in a sprightly tone, scarcely hiding a smile, "Truly, it is time to go to bed."

Alekseï Aleksandrovitch sighed, and, without speaking further, went to their chamber.

When she reached the room, he was already in bed. His lips were sternly set, and he did not look at her. Anna got into bed, every moment expecting that he would speak to her again; she both feared it and desired it, but he said nothing.

She waited long without moving, and then forgot all about him. She was thinking of some one else; she saw him and was conscious of her heart throbbing with emotion and with guilty joy. Suddenly she heard a slow and regular sound of snoring. Alekseï Aleksandrovitch at first seemed to be startled himself, and stopped; but at the end of a second the snoring began again with monotonous regularity.

"Too late! too late!" she whispered, with a smile. She lay for a long time thus, motionless, with open eyes, the shining of which it seemed to her she herself could see in the darkness.

CHAPTER X

this time began a new life for Alekseï Aleksandrovitch and his wife. Nothing unusual happened. Anna continued to go into society, and was especially often at the Princess Betsy's; and everywhere she met Vronsky. Alekseï Aleksandrovitch saw it, but was