Page 936 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Stepan Arkadyevitch made an effort and struggled with
the timidity that had come over him.
‘I hope you believe in my love for my sister and my
sincere affection and respect for you,’ he said, reddening.

Alexey Alexandrovitch stood still and said nothing, but
his face struck Stepan Arkadyevitch by its expression of an
unresisting sacrifice.
‘I intended...I wanted to have a little talk with you
about my sister and your mutual position,’ he said, still
struggling with an unaccustomed constraint.
Alexey Alexandrovitch smiled mournfully, looked at
his brother-in-law, and without answering went up to the
table, took from it an unfinished letter, and handed it to
his brother-in-law.
‘I think unceasingly of the same thing. And here is
what I had begun writing, thinking I could say it better by
letter, and that my presence irritates her,’ he said, as he
gave him the letter.
Stepan Arkadyevitch took the letter, looked with
incredulous surprise at the lusterless eyes fixed so
immovably on him, and began to read.
‘I see that my presence is irksome to you. Painful as it is
to me to believe it, I see that it is so, and cannot be
otherwise. I don’t blame you, and God is my witness that

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