Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/283

 "It is too early for Betsy," she thought; and, looking out of the window, she saw a carriage and in the carriage Alekseï Aleksandrovitch's black hat and well-known ears.

"How provoking! Can he have come for the night?" she thought; and all the consequences of his visit seemed to her so terrible, so horrible, that without taking time for a moment of reflection, she went down-stairs, radiant with gayety, to receive her husband; and, feeling in her the presence of the spirit of falsehood and deception which now ruled her, she gave herself up to it and spoke with her husband, not knowing what she said.

"Ah! how good of you!" said she, extending her hand to Karenin, while she smiled on Sliudin as a household friend.

"You've come for the night, I hope?" were her first words, inspired by the demon of untruth; "and now we will go to the races together. But how sorry I am that I engaged to go with Betsy. She is coming for me."

Alekseï Aleksandrovitch frowned slightly at the name of Betsy.

"Oh! I will not separate the inseparables," said he, in his light jesting tone. "I will walk with Mikhaïl Vasilyevitch. The doctor advised me to take exercise; I will join the pedestrians, and imagine I am still at the Spa."

"There is no hurry," said Anna. "Will you have some tea?"

She rang.

"Serve the tea, and tell Serozha that Alekseï Aleksandrovitch has come.—Well! how is your health?—Mikhaïl Vasilyevitch, you have not been out to see us before; look! how pleasant it is on the balcony!" said she, looking now at her husband, now at her guest.

She spoke very simply and naturally, but too fast and too fluently. She herself felt that it was so, especially when she caught Mikhaïl Vasilyevitch looking at her with curiosity and perceived that he was studying her.

Mikhaïl Vasilyevitch got up and went out on the terrace, and she sat down beside her husband.