Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/105

 his mistress, to the governess of my children. No; this is too cruel!" She hastily took out her handkerchief, and hid her face in it. "I might have been able to admit a moment of temptation," she continued, after a moment's pause; "but this hypocrisy, this continual attempt to deceive me .... and for whom? .... To continue to be my husband, and yet have her .... It is frightful; you cannot comprehend .... "

"Oh, yes! I comprehend; I comprehend, my dear Dolly," said Anna, squeezing her hand.

"And do you imagine that he appreciates all the horror of my situation?" continued Dolly. "Certainly not; he is happy and contented."

"Oh, no!" interrupted Anna, warmly. "He is thoroughly repentant; he is overwhelmed with remorse .... "

"Is he capable of remorse?" demanded Dolly, scrutinizing her sister-in-law's face.

"Yes; I know him. I could not look at him without feeling sorry for him. We both of us know him. He is kind; but he is proud, and now he is so humiliated! What touched me most"—Anna knew well enough that this would touch Dolly also—"are the two things that pained him: In the first place, he was ashamed for the children; and secondly, because, loving you .... yes, yes, loving you more than any one else in the world,"—she added vehemently, to prevent Dolly from interrupting her,—"he has wounded you grievously, has almost killed you. No, no, she will never forgive me! he keeps saying all the time."

Dolly looked straight beyond her sister as she listened.

"Yes, I understand that his position is terrible. The guilty suffers more than the innocent,—if he knows that he is the cause of all the unhappiness. But how can I forgive him? How can I be his wife again after she has .... For me to live with him henceforth would be torment all the more because I still love what I used to love in him .... "

And the sobs prevented her from speaking.

But as if on purpose, each time, after she had become