That she had gone out without leaving word where she was going, that she had not yet come back, and that all the morning she had been going about somewhere without a word to him--all this, together with the strange look of excitement in her face in the morning, and the recollection of the hostile tone with which she had before Yashvin almost snatched her son's photographs out of his hands, made him serious.

He decided he absolutely must speak openly with her.

And he waited for her in her drawing room.

But Anna did not return alone, but brought with her her old unmarried aunt, Princess Oblonskaya.