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to be above suspicion, and from that time began to avoid Countess
Lidia Ivanovna. He did not want to see, and did not see, that many
people in society cast dubious glances on his wife, he did not want to
understand, and did not understand, why his wife had so particularly
insisted on staying at Tsarskoe, where Betsy was staying, and not far
from the camp of Vronsky’s regiment. He did not allow himself to think
about it, and he did not think about it; but all the same though he
never admitted it to himself, and had no proofs, not even suspicious
evidence, in the bottom of his heart he knew beyond all doubt that he
was a deceived husband, and he was profoundly miserable about it.
How often during those eight years of happy life with his wife
Alexey Alexandrovitch had looked at other men’s faithless wives and
other deceived husbands and asked himself: “How can people de-
scend to that? how is it they don’t put an end to such a hideous posi-
tion?” But now, when the misfortune had come upon himself, he was
so far from thinking of putting an end to the position that he would not
recognize it at all, would not recognize it just because it was too awful,
too unnatural.
Since his return from abroad Alexey Alexandrovitch had twice
been at their country villa. Once he dined there, another time he spent
the evening there with a party of friends, but he had not once stayed
the night there, as it had been his habit to do in previous years.
The day of the races had been a very busy day for Alexey
Alexandrovitch; but when mentally sketching out the day in the morn-
ing, he made up his mind to go to their country house to see his wife
immediately after dinner, and from there to the races, which all the
Court were to witness, and at which he was bound to be present. He
was going to see his wife, because he had determined to see her once a
week to keep up appearances. And besides, on that day, as it was the
fifteenth, he had to give his wife some money for her expenses, accord-
ing to their usual arrangement.
With his habitual control over his thoughts, though he thought all
this about his wife, he did not let his thoughts stray further in regard to
her.
That morning was a very full one for Alexey Alexandrovitch. The
evening before, Countess Lidia Ivanovna had sent him a pamphlet by
a celebrated traveler in China, who was staying in Petersburg, and
with it she enclosed a note begging him to see the traveler himself, as
he was an extremely interesting person from various points of view,
and likely to be useful. Alexey Alexandrovitch had not had time to
read the pamphlet through in the evening, and finished it in the morn-
ing. Then people began arriving with petitions, and there came the
reports, interviews, appointments, dismissals, apportionment of rewards,
pensions, grants, notes, the workaday round, as Alexey Alexandrovitch
called it, that always took up so much time. Then there was private
business of his own, a visit from the doctor and the steward who man-
aged his property. The steward did not take up much time. He simply
gave Alexey Alexandrovitch the money he needed together with a
brief statement of the position of his affairs, which was not altogether
satisfactory, as it had happened that during that year, owing to in-
creased expenses, more had been paid out than usual, and there was a
deficit. But the doctor, a celebrated Petersburg doctor, who was an
intimate acquaintance of Alexey Alexandrovitch, took up a great deal
of time. Alexey Alexandrovitch had not expected him that day, and
was surprised at his visit, and still more so when the doctor questioned
him very carefully about his health, listened to his breathing, and tapped
at his liver. Alexey Alexandrovitch did not know that his friend Lidia
Ivanovna, noticing that he was not as well as usual that year, had