Anna Karenina - Part 5

"I must talk with you of a grave and painful subject. There we

will arrange where to meet. Best of all at my house, where I

will order tea _as you like it_. Urgent. He lays the cross, but

He gives the strength to bear it," she added, so as to give him

some slight preparation. Countess Lidia Ivanovna usually wrote

some two or three letters a day to Alexey Alexandrovitch. She

enjoyed that form of communication, which gave opportunity for a

refinement and air of mystery not afforded by their personal

interviews.