Page 1558 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 18

‘Now there is something I want to talk about, and you
know what it is. About Anna,’ Stepan Arkadyevitch said,
pausing for a brief space, and shaking off the unpleasant
impression.
As soon as Oblonsky uttered Anna’s name, the face of
Alexey Alexandrovitch was completely transformed; all the
life was gone out of it, and it looked weary and dead.
‘What is it exactly that you want from me?’ he said,
moving in his chair and snapping his pince-nez.
‘A definite settlement, Alexey Alexandrovitch, some
settlement of the position. I’m appealing to you’ ("not as
an injured husband,’ Stepan Arkadyevitch was going to
say, but afraid of wrecking his negotiation by this, he
changed the words) ‘not as a statesman’ (which did not
sound a propos), ‘but simply as a man, and a good-hearted
man and a Christian. You must have pity on her,’ he said.
‘That is, in what way precisely?’ Karenin said softly.
‘Yes, pity on her. If you had seen her as I have!—I
have been spending all the winter with her—you would
have pity on her. Her position is awful, simply awful!’

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