man Mikhaïl, rosy and gay in his elegant blue livery and watch-chain, immensely proud that he had fulfilled his commission so well, came to her and handed her a note.
Anna broke the seal, and her heart stood still even before she had read the carelessly written lines:—
I am very sorry that your note did not find me in Moscow. I shall return at ten o'clock.
"Yes, that is what I expected," she said to herself, with an angry grimace.
"Very good, you may go home," she said to Mikhaïl. She spoke the words slowly and gently, because the tumultuous beating of her heart almost prevented her from breathing.
"No, I will not let you make me suffer so," thought she, addressing, with a threat, neither Vronsky nor her own self, so much as the thought that was torturing her; and she moved along the platform, past the station. Two chambermaids walking on the platform turned to look at her, and made audible remarks about her toilet. "She has genuine lace," they said. The young men would not leave her in peace. They stared at her, and passed her again and again, joking and talking with loud voices. The station-master came to her, and asked if she was going to take the train. A lad selling kvas did not take his eyes from her.
"Bozhe moï! where shall I go?" she said to herself, as she walked farther and farther along the platform.
When she reached the end of it, she stopped. Some women and children, who had come to the station to meet a man in spectacles, were talking and laughing. They too stopped talking, and turned to see Anna pass by. She hastened her steps, and reached the very limit of the platform. A freight-train was coming. The platform shook, and made her feel as if she were on a moving train.
Suddenly she remembered the man who was run over on the day when she met Vronsky for the first time, and
