After he read the note, he raised his eyes to her, and there was indecision in his look. She instantly perceived that he had thought this matter over before. She knew that whatever he said to her, he would not say all that he thought. And she realized that her last hope had vanished. This was not what she had desired.
"You see what sort of a man he is," said she, with faltering voice. "He ...."
"Excuse me, but I am glad of this," said Vronsky, interrupting. "For God's sake, let me speak," he quickly added, beseeching her with his look to give him time to explain his words. "I am glad, because this cannot, and never could go on as he imagines."
"Why can't it?" demanded Anna, holding back her tears, and evidently attaching no importance to what he said. She felt that her fate was already settled.
Vronsky meant that after the duel, which he felt was inevitable, this situation must be changed; but he said something quite different.
"It cannot go on so. I hope that now you will leave him, I hope"—he stumbled and grew red—"that you will allow me to take charge of our lives, and regulate them. To-morrow.... " he began to say.
She did not allow him to finish.
"And my son!" she cried. "Do you see what he writes? I must leave him; but I cannot and I will not do that."
"But, for God's sake, which is better,—to leave your son, or to continue this humiliating situation?"
"For whom is it a humiliating situation?"
"For all of us, and especially for you,"
"You say humiliating! .... Don't say that. For me that word has no meaning," said she, with trembling voice. She could not bear now to have him tell her a falsehood. Her love for him was trembling in the balance, and she wished to love him. "You must know that for me, on that day when I first loved you, everything was transformed. For me there was one thing, and only one thing,—your love. If it is mine, then I feel myself so high, so firm, that nothing can be humili-
