Page 1129 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Dear friend, you never see evil in anyone!’
‘On the contrary, I see that all is evil. But whether it is
just..’
His face showed irresolution, and a seeking for counsel,

support, and guidance in a matter he did not understand.
‘No,’ Countess Lidia Ivanovna interrupted him; ‘there
are limits to everything. I can understand immorality,’ she
said, not quite truthfully, since she never could understand
that which leads women to immorality; ‘but I don’t
understand cruelty: to whom? to you! How can she stay in
the town where you are? No, the longer one lives the
more one learns. And I’m learning to understand your
loftiness and her baseness.’
‘Who is to throw a stone?’ said Alexey Alexandrovitch,
unmistakably pleased with the part he had to play. ‘I have
forgiven all, and so I cannot deprive her of what is exacted
by love in her—by her love for her son...’
‘But is that love, my friend? Is it sincere? Admitting
that you have forgiven—that you forgive—have we the
right to work on the feelings of that angel? He looks on
her as dead. He prays for her, and beseeches God to have
mercy on her sins. And it is better so. But now what will
he think?’

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