"Yes, I'm very weak," she said, smiling. And her lips began

trembling again.

"We'll go to Italy; you will get strong," he said.

"Can it be possible we could be like husband and wife, alone,

your family with you?" she said, looking close into his eyes.

"It only seems strange to me that it can ever have been

otherwise."

"Stiva says that _he_ has agreed to everything, but I can't accept

_his_ generosity," she said, looking dreamily past Vronsky's face.

"I don't want a divorce; it's all the same to me now. Only I

don't know what he will decide about Seryozha."

He could not conceive how at this moment of their meeting she

could remember and think of her son, of divorce. What did it all

matter?

"Don't speak of that, don't think of it," he said, turning her

hand in his, and trying to draw her attention to him; but still

she did not look at him.

"Oh, why didn't I die! it would have been better," she said, and

silent tears flowed down both her cheeks; but she tried to smile,

so as not to wound him.

To decline the flattering and dangerous appointment at Tashkend

would have been, Vronsky had till then considered, disgraceful

and impossible. But now, without an instant's consideration, he

declined it, and observing dissatisfaction in the most exalted

quarters at this step, he immediately retired from the army.

A month later Alexey Alexandrovitch was left alone with his son

in his house at Petersburg, while Anna and Vronsky had gone

abroad, not having obtained a divorce, but having absolutely

declined all idea of one.



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