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"Friends we shall never be, you know that yourself. Whether we

shall be the happiest or the wretchedest of people-that's in your

hands."

She would have said something, but he interrupted her.

"I ask one thing only: I ask for the right to hope, to suffer as

I do. But if even that cannot be, command me to disappear, and I

disappear. You shall not see me if my presence is distasteful to

you."

"I don't want to drive you away."

"Only don't change anything, leave everything as it is," he said

in a shaky voice. "Here's your husband."

At that instant Alexey Alexandrovitch did in fact walk into the

room with his calm, awkward gait.

Glancing at his wife and Vronsky, he went up to the lady of the

house, and sitting down for a cup of tea, began talking in his

deliberate, always audible voice, in his habitual tone of banter,

ridiculing someone.

"Your Rambouillet is in full conclave," he said, looking round at

all the party; "the graces and the muses."