Page 563 sur 2288

Alexey Alexandrovitch's permanent summer villa was in Peterhof,

and the Countess Lidia Ivanovna used as a rule to spend the

summer there, close to Anna, and constantly seeing her. That year

Countess Lidia Ivanovna declined to settle in Peterhof, was not

once at Anna Arkadyevna's, and in conversation with Alexey

Alexandrovitch hinted at the unsuitability of Anna's close

intimacy with Betsy and Vronsky. Alexey Alexandrovitch sternly

cut her short, roundly declaring his wife to be above suspicion,

and from that time began to avoid Countess Lidia Ivanovna. He did

not want to see, and did not see, that many people in society

cast dubious glances on his wife; he did not want to understand,

and did not understand, why his wife had so particularly insisted

on staying at Tsarskoe, where Betsy was staying, and not far from

the camp of Vronsky's regiment.