payment page
The story concludes with a description of Anna's visits to Moscow and the unbearable strain she feels living this lie. The narrator explains that Anna visits Moscow every few months under the guise that she is going to visit a gynecologist. Her husband both “believe[s] her and [does] not believe her” but all the same, Anna travels to Moscow without issue. Although Dmitri is perfectly happy with the way things have worked out, he cannot shake the feeling that his truest self is kept hidden from everyone he meets while his false self exists on the surface. He goes through the motions of life (taking his daughter to school, celebrating his and his wife’s anniversaries, working at the bank, going to gentlemen’s clubs) but he is deeply unhappy unless he is with Anna. The two lovers have also become skilled in the art of deception over time. Anna stays in the same hotel, the Slavyanski Bazaar, whenever she comes to Moscow and she alerts Dmitri of her arrival by sending a man in a red cap. Dmitri then leaves for the hotel the moment Anna makes contact.
One day, Dmitri discovers that Anna is in Moscow while he is taking his daughter to school. He drops her at the front door of the school and then rushes to the hotel where he is greeted by a passionate but emotional Anna. Anna bursts into tears shortly after Dmitri enters the hotel room and he attempts to comfort her. As he does so, he contemplates their sorry state and he admits to feeling disconcerted about the implications of falling in love for the first time to himself. He then notices his reflection in the hotel room mirror and criticizes himself for being an aging, graying old man who seduced women by pretending to be someone he was not. Dmitri continues to comfort Anna as best he can, but he knows that there will be a long way to go before they can live together openly. He compares them to two migrating birds who have been captured and locked away in separate cages. The pair then discusses how they can be freed from their “intolerable fetters.” The short story ends with Dmitri noting that while the two lovers are “within an inch of arriving at a decision,” it will be a lengthy process to separate from their respective spouses.
