Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/263

 "Very good! let us suppose I do it," said she. 'Do you know what the result would be? I will tell you;"and a wicked fire flashed from her eyes, which were just now so gentle. "'Oh! you love another, and your course with him has been criminal,'" said she,imitating her husband, and accenting the word criminal in exactly his manner. "I warned you of the consequences which would follow from the point of view of religion, of society, and of the family. You did not listen to me; now I cannot allow my name to be dishonored, and my'"—she was going to say my son, but stopped, for she could not jest about him—"'my name dishonored,' and so on in the same style," she added."In a word, he will tell me with his official manner and with precision and clearness that he cannot set me free, but that he will take measures to avoid a scandal.And he will do exactly as he says. That is what will take place; for he is not a man, he is a machine, and,when he is stirred up, an ugly machine," said she, calling to mind the most trifling details in her husband's face and manner of speaking, and charging to him as a crime all the ill that she could find in him, and not pardoning him at all on account of the terrible sin of which she had been guilty before him.

"But, Anna," said Vronsky, in a persuasive, tender voice, trying to calm her, "you must tell him everything, and act accordingly as he proceeds."

'What! elope?"

"Why not elope? I see no possibility of living as we are any longer; it is not on my account, but I see you will suffer."

"What! elope, and become your mistress?" said she,bitterly.

"Anna!" he cried, deeply wounded.

"Yes, your mistress, and lose everything!"....

Again she was going to say my son, but she could not pronounce the word.

Vronsky could not understand how she, with her strong, loyal nature, could accept the false position in which she was placed, and not endeavor to escape from