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 Alekseï Aleksandrovitch approached, and wanted to take her hand.

Anna's first impulse was to withdraw her hand from her husband's clammy hand with its big, swollen veins; but she evidently controlled herself, and pressed it.

"I am very grateful to you for your confidence, but ...." he began, then stopped, awkward and annoyed, feeling that what he could easily and clearly decide when by himself, he could not settle in the presence of the Princess Tverskaya, who was the incarnation of that brutal force which he had to take as the guide of his life in the eyes of the world, and obliged him to renounce his feelings of love and forgiveness. He stopped as he looked at the Princess Tverskaya.

"Well, good-by, my treasure," said Betsy, rising. She kissed Anna, and went out. Karenin accompanied her.

"Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, I know that you are an extraordinarily magnanimous man," said Betsy, stopping in the middle of the boudoir to press his hand again with unusual fervor; "I am a stranger, and I love her so much, and esteem you so highly, that I take the liberty of giving you a bit of advice. Let him come. Alekseï Vronsky is the personification of honor, and he is going to Tashkend."

"I thank you for your sympathy and your advice, princess; but the question whether my wife can or cannot receive anybody is for her to decide."

He spoke these words with dignity, raising his eyebrows as usual; but he felt at once that, whatever his words had been, dignity was inconsistent with the situation. The sarcastic and wicked smile with which Betsy greeted his remark proved it beyond a doubt.

CHAPTER XX

took leave of Betsy in the "hall" and returned to his wife; she was lying down, but, hearing her husband's steps, she sat up