But late in the evening, when they were alone, Anna, seeing that
she had regained complete possession of him, wanted to erase the
painful impression of the glance he had given her for her letter.
She said: "Tell me frankly, you were vexed at getting my letter, and you
didn't believe me?"
As soon as she had said it, she felt that however warm his
feelings were to her, he had not forgiven her for that.
"Yes," he said, "the letter was so strange. First, Annie ill,
and then you thought of coming yourself."
"It was all the truth."
"Oh, I don't doubt it."
"Yes, you do doubt it. You are vexed, I see."
"Not for one moment. I'm only vexed, that's true, that you seem
somehow unwilling to admit that there are duties..."
"The duty of going to a concert..."
"But we won't talk about it," he said.
"Why not talk about it?" she said.
"I only meant to say that matters of real importance may turn up.
Now, for instance, I shall have to go to Moscow to arrange about
the house.... Oh, Anna, why are you so irritable? Don't you
know that I can't live without you?"
"If so," said Anna, her voice suddenly changing, "it means that
you are sick of this life.... Yes, you will come for a day and
go away, as men do..."
"Anna, that's cruel. I am ready to give up my whole life."
But she did not hear him.
"If you go to Moscow, I will go too. I will not stay here.
Either we must separate or else live together."
"Why, you know, that's my one desire. But for that..."
"We must get a divorce. I will write to him. I see I cannot go
on like this.... But I will come with you to Moscow."
"You talk as if you were threatening me. But I desire nothing
so much as never to be parted from you," said Vronsky, smiling.
But as he said these words there gleamed in his eyes not merely a
cold look, but the vindictive look of a man persecuted and made
cruel.
She saw the look and correctly divined its meaning.
"If so, it's a calamity!" that glance told her. It was a
moment's impression, but she never forgot it.
Anna wrote to her husband asking him about a divorce, and towards
the end of November, taking leave of Princess Varvara, who wanted
to go to Petersburg, she went with Vronsky to Moscow. Expecting
every day an answer from Alexey Alexandrovitch, and after that
the divorce, they now established themselves together like
married people.