I'm forced to go on to old Madame Vrede.

I've been promising to go for a century," said Anna, to whom lying, alien as it was to her nature, had become not merely simple and natural in society, but a positive source of satisfaction.

Why she said this, which she had not thought of a second before, she could not have explained.

She had said it simply from the reflection that as Vronsky would not be here, she had better secure her own freedom, and try to see him somehow.