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"I did not tell you yesterday," she began, breathing quickly and

painfully, "that coming home with Alexey Alexandrovitch I told

him everything ... told him I could not be his wife, that ... and

told him everything."

He heard her, unconsciously bending his whole figure down to her

as though hoping in this way to soften the hardness of her

position for her. But directly she had said this he suddenly drew

himself up, and a proud and hard expression came over his face.

"Yes, yes, that's better, a thousand times better! I know how

painful it was," he said. But she was not listening to his words,

she was reading his thoughts from the expression of his face. She

could not guess that that expression arose from the first idea

that presented itself to Vronsky-that a duel was now inevitable.

The idea of a duel had never crossed her mind, and so she put a

different interpretation on this passing expression of hardness.