Page 937 - ANNA KARENINA
P. 937

Anna Karenina


                                  on seeing you at the time of your illness I resolved with
                                  my whole heart to forget all that had passed between us
                                  and to begin a new life. I do not regret, and shall never
                                  regret, what I have done; but I have desired one thing—

                                  your good, the good of your soul—and now I see I have
                                  not attained that. Tell me yourself what will give you true
                                  happiness and peace to your soul. I put myself entirely in
                                  your hands, and trust to your feeling of what’s right.’
                                     Stepan Arkadyevitch handed back the letter, and with
                                  the same surprise continued looking at his brother-in-law,
                                  not knowing what to say. This silence was so awkward for
                                  both of them that Stepan Arkadyevitch’s lips began
                                  twitching nervously, while he still gazed without speaking
                                  at Karenin’s face.
                                     ‘That’s what I wanted to  say to her,’ said Alexey
                                  Alexandrovitch, turning away.
                                     ‘Yes, yes...’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, not able to
                                  answer for the tears that were choking him.
                                     ‘Yes, yes, I understand you,’ he brought out at last.
                                     ‘I want to know what she would like,’ said Alexey
                                  Alexandrovitch.
                                     ‘I am afraid she does not understand her own position.
                                  She is not a judge,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch, recovering
                                  himself. ‘She is crushed, simply crushed by your



                                                         936 of 1759
   932   933   934   935   936   937   938   939   940   941   942