Page 916 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

nothing extraordinary in his position, nothing that ought
to be changed.
But as time went on, he saw more and more distinctly
that however natural the position now seemed to him, he

would not long be allowed to remain in it. He felt that
besides the blessed spiritual force controlling his soul, there
was another, a brutal force, as powerful, or more
powerful, which controlled his life, and that this force
would not allow him that humble peace he longed for. He
felt that everyone was looking at him with inquiring
wonder, that he was not understood, and that something
was expected of him. Above all, he felt the instability and
unnaturalness of his relations with his wife.
When the softening effect of the near approach of
death had passed away, Alexey Alexandrovitch began to
notice that Anna was afraid of him, ill at ease with him,
and could not look him straight in the face. She seemed to
be wanting, and not daring, to tell him something; and as
though foreseeing their present relations could not
continue, she seemed to be expecting something from
him.
Towards the end of February it happened that Anna’s
baby daughter, who had been named Anna too, fell ill.
Alexey Alexandrovitch was in the nursery in the morning,

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