Page 1617 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 26

Never before had a day been passed in quarrel. Today
was the first time. And this was not a quarrel. It was the
open acknowledgment of complete coldness. Was it
possible to glance at her as he had glanced when he came
into the room for the guarantee?—to look at her, see her
heart was breaking with despair, and go out without a
word with that face of callous composure? He was not
merely cold to her, he hated her because he loved another
woman—that was clear.
And remembering all the cruel words he had said,
Anna supplied, too, the words that he had unmistakably
wished to say and could have said to her, and she grew
more and more exasperated.
‘I won’t prevent you,’ he might say. ‘You can go
where you like. You were unwilling to be divorced from
your husband, no doubt so that you might go back to
him. Go back to him. If you want money, I’ll give it to
you. How many roubles do you want?’
All the most cruel words that a brutal man could say,
he said to her in her imagination, and she could not
forgive him for them, as though he had actually said them.

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