Page 862 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

all her heart. ‘That was what I did indeed when she herself
made known to me my humiliation; I left everything as of
old. I gave her a chance to reform, I tried to save her. And
with what result? She would not regard the slightest

request—that she should observe decorum,’ he said,
getting heated. ‘One may save anyone who does not want
to be ruined; but if the whole nature is so corrupt, so
depraved, that ruin itself seems to be her salvation, what’s
to be done?’
‘Anything, only not divorce!’ answered Darya
Alexandrovna
‘But what is anything?’
‘No, it is awful! She will be no one’s wife, she will be
lost!’
‘What can I do?’ said Alexey Alexandrovitch, raising his
shoulders and his eyebrows. The recollection of his wife’s
last act had so incensed him that he had become frigid, as
at the beginning of the conversation. ‘I am very grateful
for your sympathy, but I must be going,’ he said, getting
up.
‘No, wait a minute. You must not ruin her. Wait a
little; I will tell you about myself. I was married, and my
husband deceived me; in anger and jealousy, I would have
thrown up everything, I would myself.... But I came to

861 of 1759