Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/104

 Under her long lashes her brilliant eyes suddenly filled with tears. She drew closer, and with her energetic little hand seized the hand of her sister-in-law. Dolly did not repulse her, but her face still preserved its forlorn expression.

"It is impossible to console me. After what has happened, all is over for me, all is lost."

And she had hardly said these words ere her face suddenly softened a little. Anna lifted to her lips the thin, dry hand that she held, and kissed it.

"But, Dolly, what is to be done? what is to be done? What is the best way to act in this frightful condition of things? We must think about it."

"All is over! Nothing can be done!" Dolly replied. "And, what is worse than all, you must understand it, is that I cannot leave him! the children! I am chained to him I and I cannot live with him! It is torture to see him!"

"Dolly, galubchik, he has told me; but I should like to hear your side of the story. Tell me all."

Dolly looked at her with a questioning expression. Sympathy and the sincerest affection were depicted in Anna's face.

"I should like to," she suddenly said. "But I shall tell you everything from the very beginning. You know how I was married. With the education that maman gave me, I was not only innocent, I was stupid. I did not know anything. I know they said husbands told their wives all about their past lives; but Stiva,"—she corrected herself,—"Stepan Arkadyevitch never told me anything. You would not believe it, but, up to the present time, I supposed that I was the only woman with whom he was acquainted. Thus I lived eight years. You see, I not only never suspected him of being unfaithful to me, but I believed such a thing to be impossible. And with such ideas, imagine how I suffered when I suddenly learned all this horror—all this dastardliness. .... Understand me. To believe absolutely in his honor" .... continued Dolly, struggling to keep back her sobs, "and suddenly to find a letter .... a letter from him to