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But Princess Betsy could not endure that tone of his-"sneering,"

as she called it, using the English word, and like a skillful

hostess she at once brought him into a serious conversation on

the subject of universal conscription. Alexey Alexandrovitch was

immediately interested in the subject, and began seriously

defending the new imperial decree against Princess Betsy, who had

attacked it.

Vronsky and Anna still sat at the little table.

"This is getting indecorous," whispered one lady, with an

expressive glance at Madame Karenina, Vronsky, and her husband.

"What did I tell you?" said Anna's friend.

But not only those ladies, almost everyone in the room, even the

Princess Myakaya and Betsy herself, looked several times in the

direction of the two who had withdrawn from the general circle,

as though that were a disturbing fact. Alexey Alexandrovitch was

the only person who did not once look in that direction, and was

not diverted from the interesting discussion he had entered upon.