Page 641 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

infamous, basest of women. He knows that, and knows
that I am incapable of doing that.’
She recalled another sentence in the letter. ‘Our life
must go on as it has done in the past....’ ‘That life was

miserable enough in the old days; it has been awful of late.
What will it be now? And he knows all that; he knows
that I can’t repent that I breathe, that I love; he knows
that it can lead to nothing but lying and deceit; but he
wants to go on torturing me. I know him; I know that
he’s at home and is happy in deceit, like a fish swimming
in the water. No, I won’t give him that happiness. I’ll
break through the spiderweb of lies in which he wants to
catch me, come what may. Anything’s better than lying
and deceit.
‘But how? My God! my God! Was ever a woman so
miserable as I am?..’
‘No; I will break through it, I will break through it!’
she cried, jumping up and keeping back her tears. And she
went to the writing table to write him another letter. But
at the bottom of her heart she felt that she was not strong
enough to break through anything, that she was not strong
enough to get out of her old position, however false and
dishonorable it might be.

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