11. 'Vera? Is that you? What a day! All noise and rain. Do please carry on about Anna!'

'Well. Anna danced with Vronsky – at the ball that night; he became her shadow and very much more!'

'No! – Alexei Vronsky and Anna – an affair! What about her husband? Surely he found out?'

'Eventually, yes. I think Anna told him, but not until she was with child, Vronsky's child. There was to be no hiding that.'

'What did he say?'

'Believe it or not, he forgave them both! Insisted that they remain married and attempted to continue as if nothing had happened.'

'I always did think that man was a fool. What happened next?'

'Vronsky shot himself, claiming he could not bear to be apart from her. Melodramatic is not the word for it!'

'It reads like a cheap novelette! Did he die?'

'No; merely wounded. It gets worse. Karenin realised that to save Anna he himself must take the disgrace and admit that he had been unfaithful so that Anna was not ruined and could marry Vronsky.'

'So Karenin let them go? He didn't ban her from ever seeing her lover again? Didn't horse-whip either of them or sell his story to The Mole? It strikes me Karenin himself may have had some totty on the side, too. Wait! My husband calls me – stay tuned. Fare-well for now, my dear Vera!'