Page 943 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Stepan Arkadyevitch was touched. He was silent for a
space.
‘Alexey Alexandrovitch, believe me, she appreciates
your generosity,’ he said. ‘But it seems it was the will of

God,’ he added, and as he said it felt how foolish a remark
it was, and with difficulty repressed a smile at his own
foolishness.
Alexey Alexandrovitch would have made some reply,
but tears stopped him.
‘This is an unhappy fatality, and one must accept it as
such. I accept the calamity as an accomplished fact, and am
doing my best to help both her and you,’ said Stepan
Arkadyevitch.
When he went out of his brother-in-law’s room he was
touched, but that did not prevent him from being glad he
had successfully brought the matter to a conclusion, for he
felt certain Alexey Alexandrovitch would not go back on
his words. To this satisfaction was added the fact that an
idea had just struck him for a riddle turning on his
successful achievement, that when the affair was over he
would ask his wife and most intimate friends. He put this
riddle into two or three different ways. ‘But I’ll work it
out better than that,’ he said to himself with a smile.

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