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But in dreams, when she had no control over her thoughts, her

position presented itself to her in all its hideous nakedness.

One dream haunted her almost every night. She dreamed that both

were her husbands at once, that both were lavishing caresses on

her. Alexey Alexandrovitch was weeping, kissing her hands, and

saying, "How happy we are now!" And Alexey Vronsky was there too,

and he too was her husband. And she was marveling that it had

once seemed impossible to her, was explaining to them, laughing,

that this was ever so much simpler, and that now both of them

were happy and contented. But this dream weighed on her like a

nightmare, and she awoke from it in terror.

Chapter 12