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This playing with words, this hiding of a secret, had a great

fascination for Anna, as, indeed, it has for all women. And it

was not the necessity of concealment, not the aim with which the

concealment was contrived, but the process of concealment itself

which attracted her.

"I can't be more Catholic than the Pope," she said. "Stremov and

Liza Merkalova, why, they're the cream of the cream of society.

Besides, they're received everywhere, and I"-she laid special

stress on the I-"have never been strict and intolerant. It's

simply that I haven't the time."