Anna arrived in Petersburg early in the morning; a carriage was sent to fetch her, in accordance with her telegram, and therefore Alexei Alexandrovich might have known of her arrival. But when she arrived, he did not meet her. She was told that he had not come out yet and was busy with the office manager. She asked that her husband be told of her arrival, went to her boudoir and began to unpack her things, expecting him to come to her. But an hour went by and he did not come. She went out to the dining room under the pretext of giving orders and spoke loudly on purpose, expecting him to come there; but he did not come, though she heard him walk to the door of the study to see the office manager off. She knew that he would soon leave for work, as usual, and she would have liked to see him before then, in order to have their relations defined.
After taking a few steps round the drawing room, she resolutely went to him. When she entered his study, he was sitting in his uniform, apparently ready to leave, leaning his elbows on the small table and gazing dejectedly in front of him. She saw him before he saw her, and she realized that he was thinking about her.
Seeing her, he made as if to get up, changed his mind, then his face flushed, something Anna had never seen before, and he quickly got up and went to meet her, looking not into her eyes but higher, at her forehead and hair. He went up to her, took her by the hand and asked her to sit down.
‘I’m very glad you’ve come,’ he said, sitting down next to her, and, obviously wishing to say something, he faltered. Several times he tried to begin speaking, but stopped. Although, while preparing herself for this meeting, she had taught herself to despise and accuse him, she did not know what to say and felt sorry for him. And the silence went on like that for quite some time. ‘Is Seryozha well?’ he said and, without waiting for an answer, added: ‘I won’t dine at home today, and I must leave at once.’
‘I wanted to go to Moscow,’ she said.
‘No, you did very, very well to come,’ he said, and again fell silent.
Seeing that he was unable to begin talking, she began herself.
‘Alexei Alexandrovich,’ she said, looking up at him and not lowering her eyes under his gaze, directed at her hair, ‘I am a criminal woman, I am a bad woman, but I am the same as I said I was then, and I’ve come to tell you that I cannot change anything.’
‘I did not ask you about that,’ he said suddenly, looking straight into her eyes, resolutely and with hatred, ‘I had supposed as much.’ Under the influence of anger, he apparently regained complete command of all his abilities. ‘But, as I then said and wrote to you,’ he went on in a sharp, thin voice, ‘I now repeat that I am not obliged to know it. I ignore it. Not all wives are so kind as you are, to hasten to tell their husbands such
‘But our relations cannot be as they have always been,’ Anna began in a timid voice, looking at him in fear.
When she saw again those calm gestures, heard that piercing, childlike and mocking voice, her loathing for him annihilated the earlier pity, and she was merely frightened, but wished at all costs to understand her situation.
‘I cannot be your wife when I ...’ she began.
He laughed a spiteful, cold laugh.
‘It must be that the sort of life you’ve chosen has affected your notions. I respect or despise the one and the other so much ... I respect your past and despise the present ... that I was far from the interpretation you have given to my words.’
Anna sighed and lowered her head.
‘However, I do not understand, having as much independence as you do,’ he went on, becoming excited, ‘telling your husband straight out about your infidelity and finding nothing reprehensible in it, as it seems, how you find it reprehensible to fulfil the duties of a wife towards your husband.’
‘Alexei Alexandrovich! What do you want from me?’
‘I want that I not meet that man here, and that you behave in such a way that neither
He got up and went to the door. Anna also got up. With a silent bow, he let her pass.
XXIV
