Page 860 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

of his conviction; but this warm defense, though it could
not shake him, reopened his wound. He began to speak
with greater heat.
‘It is extremely difficult to be mistaken when a wife

herself informs her husband of the fact—informs him that
eight years of her life, and a son, all that’s a mistake, and
that she wants to begin life again,’ he said angrily, with a
snort.
‘Anna and sin—I cannot connect them, I cannot
believe it!’
‘Darya Alexandrovna,’ he said, now looking straight
into Dolly’s kindly, troubled face, and feeling that his
tongue was being loosened in spite of himself, ‘I would
give a great deal for doubt to be still possible. When I
doubted, I was miserable, but it was better than now.
When I doubted, I had hope; but now there is no hope,
and still I doubt of everything. I am in such
doubt of everything that I even hate my son, and
sometimes do not believe he is my son. I am very
unhappy.’
He had no need to say that. Darya Alexandrovna had
seen that as soon as he glanced into her face; and she felt
sorry for him, and her faith in the innocence of her friend
began to totter.

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