Page 828 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘I want to tell you that I can’t dine at your house,
because the terms of relationship which have existed
between us must cease.’
‘How? How do you mean? What for?’ said Stepan

Arkadyevitch with a smile.
‘Because I am beginning an action for divorce against
your sister, my wife. I ought to have..’
But, before Alexey Alexandrovitch had time to finish
his sentence, Stepan Arkadyevitch was behaving not at all
as he had expected. He groaned and sank into an
armchair.
‘No, Alexey Alexandrovitch! What are you saying?’
cried Oblonsky, and his suffering was apparent in his face.
‘It is so.’
‘Excuse me, I can’t, I can’t believe it!’
Alexey Alexandrovitch sat down, feeling that his words
had not had the effect he anticipated, and that it would be
unavoidable for him to explain his position, and that,
whatever explanations he might make, his relations with
his brother-in-law would remain unchanged.
‘Yes, I am brought to the painful necessity of seeking a
divorce,’ he said.
‘I will say one thing, Alexey Alexandrovitch. I know
you for an excellent, upright man; I know Anna—excuse

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