`Oh heavens! Ever so many times! But, you see, some men can play, but only so that they can always lay down their cards when the hour of a rendez-vous comes, while I can take up love, but only so as not to be late for my cards in the evening. That's how I manage things.'

`No, I didn't mean that, but the real thing.' She would have said Helsingfors, but would not repeat the word used by Vronsky.

Voitov, who was buying the horse, came in. Anna got up and went out of the room.

Before leaving the house, Vronsky went into her room. She would have pretended to be looking for something on the table, but ashamed of making a pretense, she looked straight in his face with cold eyes.

`What do you want?' she asked in French.

`To get the guarantee for Gambetta - I've sold him,' he said, in a tone which said more clearly than words, `I've no time for discussing things, and it would lead to nothing.'

`I'm not to blame in any way,' he thought. `If she will punish herself, tant pis pour elle.' But as he was going he fancied that she said something, and his heart suddenly ached with pity for her.

`Eh, Anna?' he queried.

`I said nothing,' she answered just as coldly and calmly.

`Oh, nothing, tant pis then,' he thought, feeling cold again, and he turned and went out. As he was going out he caught a glimpse in the looking glass of her face, white, with quivering lips. He even wanted to stop and to say some comforting word to her, but his legs carried him out of the room before he could think what to say. The whole of that day he spent away from home, and when he came in late in the evening the maid told him that Anna Arkadyevna had a headache and begged him not to go in to her.