Anna Karenina

apathetically, proffering his hand. "You set out with the mother and
return with the son," he said to Anna, articulating distinctly, as
though each word were a coin of high value bestowed by him on his
hearers.- "You're back from leave, I suppose?" he said, and without
waiting for a reply, he addressed his wife in his bantering tone:
"Well, were a great many tears shed in Moscow at parting?"
By addressing his wife thus he meant Vronsky to perceive that he
wished to be left alone, and, turning slightly toward him, he
touched his hat; but Vronsky turned to Anna Arkadyevna:
"I hope to have the honor of calling on you," he said.
Alexei Alexandrovich glanced with his weary eyes at Vronsky.
"Delighted," he said coldly. "We're at home Mondays." Then,
dismissing Vronsky entirely, he said to his wife: "I am rather lucky
to have just half an hour to meet you, so that I can prove to you my
fondness," he went on, in the same bantering tone.
{PART_ONE|CHAPTER_XXXI ^paragraph 15}
"You lay too great a stress on your fondness for me to value it very
much," she responded in the same bantering tone, involuntarily
listening to the sound of Vronsky's steps behind them. "But what
have I to do with that?" she said to herself, and began questioning
her husband as to how Seriozha had got on without her.
"Oh, capitally! Mariette says he has been a very darling boy, and...
I must disappoint you... But he has not languished for you as your
husband has. But once more merci, my dear, for bestowing a whole day
upon me. Our dear Samovar will be enraptured." (He called the Countess
Lidia Ivanovna, well known in society, a samovar, because she was
bubbling over with excitement on any and every occasion.) "She has
been asking for you. And, d'you know, if I may venture to advise
you, you ought to go to see her today. You know how she takes
everything to heart. Just now, with all her own cares, she's anxious
about the reconciliation of the Oblonskys."
The Countess Lidia Ivanovna was a friend of her husband's, and the
center of that one of the coteries of the Peterburg beau monde with
which Anna was, through her husband, in the closest rapport.
"But I wrote to her."
"Yes, but she must have full details. Go to see her, if you're not
too tired, my dear. Well, Kondratii will take you in the carriage,
while I go to my committee. Once more I shall not be alone at dinner,"
Alexei Alexandrovich continued, but no longer in a jesting tone.
"You wouldn't believe how I've grown used to you...."
{PART_ONE|CHAPTER_XXXI ^paragraph 20}
And, with a prolonged pressure of her hand, and a particular
smile, he helped her into her carriage.

{PART_ONE|CHAPTER_XXXII
XXXII.
-
The first person to meet Anna at home was her son. He dashed down
the stairs to her, in spite of the governess's call, and with