Page 266 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

point. There had been nothing definite, but Stepan
Arkadyevitch was hardly ever at home; money, too, was
hardly ever forthcoming, and Dolly was continually
tortured by suspicions of infidelity, which she tried to

dismiss, dreading the agonies of jealousy she had been
through already. The first onslaught of jealousy, once lived
through, could never come back again, and even the
discovery of infidelities could never now affect her as it
had the first time. Such a discovery now would only mean
breaking up family habits, and she let herself be deceived,
despising him and still more herself, for the weakness.
Besides this, the care of her large family was a constant
worry to her: first, the nursing of her young baby did not
go well, then the nurse had gone away, now one of the
children had fallen ill.
‘Well, how are all of you?’ asked her mother.
‘Ah, mamma, we have plenty of troubles of our own.
Lili is ill, And I’m afraid it’s scarlatina. I have come here
now to hear about Kitty, And then I shall shut myself up
entirely, if—God forbid—it should be scarlatina.’
The old prince too had come in from his study after
the doctor’s departure, and after presenting his cheek to
Dolly, and saying a few words to her, he turned to his
wife:

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