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 am going away to-morrow I will do more. What am I? A lost woman, a millstone about your neck. I don't want to torment you. I will set you free. You do not love me; you love another."

Vronsky begged her to be calm. He swore there was not the slightest ground for her jealousy, and that he had never ceased and never should cease to love her; that he loved her more than ever.

"Anna, why torture yourself and me so?" he asked, as he kissed her hand. His face expressed the deepest tenderness; and it seemed to her that her ears caught the sound of tears in his voice, and that she felt their moisture on her hand.

Passing suddenly from jealousy to the most passionate tenderness, she covered his head, his neck, his hands, with kisses.

CHAPTER XXV

that their reconciliation was complete, Anna the next morning eagerly made her preparations for departure. Although it was not yet definitely decided whether they should start on Monday or Tuesday, since both days had certain contingencies, Anna was busily making her preparations for the journey, feeling now perfectly indifferent whether they went a little sooner or a little later. She was engaged in her room taking various articles from an open trunk, when Vronsky, already dressed, came to her earlier than usual.

"I am going now to maman. Perhaps she can get me the money through Yegerof, and then I shall be ready to go to-morrow," he said.

She was feeling particularly cheerful, but his reference to his visit to his mother's datcha was like a stitch in the side.

"No; I shall not be ready myself;" and immediately she thought, "So then it was possible to arrange it so as to do as I wished."—"No; do just as you intended to. And now go to the dining-room, and I will join you as