第184章

[Next Chapter] [Table of Contents]TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 4, Chapter 22[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 22 Stepan Arkadyevich, with the same somewhat solemn expression with which he used to take his presidential chair at his board, walked into Alexei Alexandrovich's room. Alexei Alexandrovich was walking about his room with his hands behind his back, thinking of just what Stepan Arkadyevich had been discussing with his wife.

`I'm not interrupting you?' said Stepan Arkadyevich, on the sight of his brother-in-law becoming suddenly aware of a sense of embarrassment unusual with him. To conceal this embarrassment he took out a newly purchased cigarette case that opened in a new way, and, sniffing the leather, took a cigarette out of it.

`No. Do you want anything?' Alexei Alexandrovich said reluctantly.

`Yes, I wished... I wanted... Yes, I wanted to talk to you,' said Stepan Arkadyevich, with surprise aware of an unaccustomed timidity.

This feeling was so unexpected and so strange that he did not believe it was the voice of conscience telling him that what he meant to do was wrong. Stepan Arkadyevich 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.

Alexei Alexandrovich stood still and said nothing, but his face struck Stepan Arkadyevich 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.

Alexei Alexandrovich 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 Arkadyevich 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 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 is right.'

Stepan Arkadyevich 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 Arkadyevich'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 Alexei Alexandrovich, turning away.

`Yes, yes...' said Stepan Arkadyevich, 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 Alexei Alexandrovich.

`I am afraid she does not understand her own position. She is not a judge,' said Stepan Arkadyevich, recovering himself. `She is crushed, simply crushed by your generosity. If she were to read this letter, she would be incapable of saying anything - she would only hang her head lower than ever.'

`Yes, but what's to be done in that case? How explain... how find out her wishes?'

`If you will allow me to give my opinion, I think that it lies with you to point out directly the steps you consider necessary to end the situation.'

`So you consider it must be ended?' Alexei Alexandrovich interrupted him. `But how?' he added, with a gesture of his hands before his eyes, not usual with him. `I see no possible way out of it.'

`There is some way of getting out of every situation,' said Stepan Arkadyevich, standing up and becoming more cheerful. `There was a time when you thought of breaking off... If you are convinced now that you cannot make each other happy...'

`Happiness may be variously understood. But suppose that I agree to everything, that I want nothing: what way is there of getting out of our situation?'

`If you care to know my opinion,' - said Stepan Arkadyevich, with the same smile of softening, almond-oil tenderness with which he had been talking to Anna. His kindly smile was so winning that Alexei Alexandrovich, feeling his own weakness and unconsciously swayed by it, was ready to believe what Stepan Arkadyevich was saying. `She will never speak out about it.

But one thing is possible, one thing she might desire,' he went on; `that is the cessation of your relations, and all memories associated with them.

To my thinking, in your situation the essential thing is the formation of a new attitude to one another. And that can only rest on a basis of freedom on both sides.'

`Divorce,' Alexei Alexandrovich interrupted, in a tone of aversion.

`Yes, I imagine that divorce... Yes, divorce,' Stepan Arkadyevich repeated, reddening. `That is from every point of view the most rational course for married people who find themselves in the situation you are in. What can be done if married people find that life is impossible for them together? That may always happen.'

Alexei Alexandrovich sighed heavily and closed his eyes.

`There's only one point to be considered: is either of the parties desirous of forming new ties? If not, it is very simple,' said Stepan Arkadyevich, feeling more and more free from constraint.