Page 684 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

minute! Yes, just as you can only carry a fardeau and do
something with your hands, when the fardeau is tied on
your back, and that’s marriage. And that’s what I felt when
I was married. My hands were suddenly set free. But to

drag that fardeau about with you without marriage, your
hands will always be so full that you can do nothing. Look
at Mazankov, at Krupov. They’ve ruined their careers for
the sake of women.’
‘What women!’ said Vronsky, recalling the
Frenchwoman and the actress with whom the two men he
had mentioned were connected.
‘The firmer the woman’s footing in society, the worse
it is. That’s much the same as—not merely carrying the
fardeau in your arms—but tearing it away from someone
else.’
‘You have never loved,’ Vronsky said softly, looking
straight before him and thinking of Anna.
‘Perhaps. But you remember what I’ve said to you.
And another thing, women are all more materialistic than
men. We make something immense out of love, but they
are always terre-a-terre.’
‘Directly, directly!’ he cried to a footman who came in.
But the footman had not come to call them again, as he
supposed. The footman brought Vronsky a note.

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