Page 414 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘But how, Alexey, tell me how?’ she said in melancholy
mockery at the hopelessness of her own position. ‘Is there
any way out of such a position? Am I not the wife of my
husband?’

‘There is a way out of every position. We must take
our line,’ he said. ‘Anything’s better than the position in
which you’re living. Of course, I see how you torture
yourself over everything—the world and your son and
your husband.’
‘Oh, not over my husband,’ she said, with a quiet
smile. ‘I don’t know him, I don’t think of him. He doesn’t
exist.’
‘You’re not speaking sincerely. I know you. You
worry about him too.’
‘Oh, he doesn’t even know,’ she said, and suddenly a
hot flush came over her face; her cheeks, her brow, her
neck crimsoned, and tears of shame came into her eyes.
‘But we won’t talk of him.’

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