Page 1560 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Allow me to disbelieve that,’ Stepan Arkadyevitch
replied gently. ‘Her position is intolerable for her, and of
no benefit to anyone whatever. She has deserved it, you
will say. She knows that and asks you for nothing; she says

plainly that she dare not ask you. But I, all of us, her
relatives, all who love her, beg you, entreat you. Why
should she suffer? Who is any the better for it?’
‘Excuse me, you seem to put me in the position of the
guilty party,’ observed Alexey Alexandrovitch.
‘Oh, no, oh, no, not at all! please understand me,’ said
Stepan Arkadyevitch, touching his hand again, as though
feeling sure this physical contact would soften his brother-
in-law. ‘All I say is this: her position is intolerable, and it
might be alleviated by you, and you will lose nothing by
it. I will arrange it all for you, so that you’ll not notice it.
You did promise it, you know.’
‘The promise was given before. And I had supposed
that the question of my son had settled the matter. Besides,
I had hoped that Anna Arkadyevna had enough
generosity...’ Alexey Alexandrovitch articulated with
difficulty, his lips twitching and his face white.
‘She leaves it all to your generosity. She begs, she
implores one thing of you—to extricate her from the
impossible position in which she is placed. She does not

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