Page 670 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

But of late new inner relations had arisen between him
and her, which frightened Vronsky by their indefiniteness.
Only the day before she had told him that she was with
child. And he felt that this fact and what she expected of

him called for something not fully defined in that code of
principles by which he had hitherto steered his course in
life. And he had been indeed caught unawares, and at the
first moment when she spoke to him of her position, his
heart had prompted him to beg her to leave her husband.
He had said that, but now thinking things over he saw
clearly that it would be better to manage to avoid that; and
at the same time, as he told himself so, he was afraid
whether it was not wrong.
‘If I told her to leave her husband, that must mean
uniting her life with mine; am I prepared for that? How
can I take her away now, when I have no money?
Supposing I could arrange.... But how can I take her away
while I’m in the service? If I say that I ought to be
prepared to do it, that is, I ought to have the money and
to retire from the army.’
And he grew thoughtful. The question whether to
retire from the service or not brought him to the other
and perhaps the chief though hidden interest of his life, of
which none knew but he.

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