Page 618 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

divorce, a separation, and once again rejecting them,
Alexey Alexandrovitch felt convinced that there was only
one solution,—to keep her with him, concealing what had
happened from the world, and using every measure in his

power to break off the intrigue, and still more—though
this he did not admit to himself—to punish her. ‘I must
inform her of my conclusion, that thinking over the
terrible position in which she has placed her family, all
other solutions will be worse for both sides than an
external status quo, and that such I agree to retain, on the
strict condition of obedience on her part to my wishes,
that is to say, cessation of all intercourse with her lover.’
When this decision had been finally adopted, another
weighty consideration occurred to Alexey
Alexandrovitch in support of it. ‘By such a course only
shall I be acting in accordance with the dictates of
religion,’ he told himself. ‘In adopting this course, I am
not casting off a guilty wife, but giving her a chance of
amendment; and, indeed, difficult as the task will be to
me, I shall devote part of my energies to her reformation
and salvation.’
Though Alexey Alexandrovitch was perfectly aware
that he could not exert any moral influence over his wife,
that such an attempt at reformation could lead to nothing

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