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 "Excuse me; you seem to accuse me of being to blame." ....

"Oh! not at all, not at all, understand me," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, touching Karenin's arm, as if he believed that personal contact would have a mollifying effect on his brother-in-law. "I merely say this. Her position is painful; and you can relieve it, and it will not cost you anything. I will so arrange the matter that you shall have no trouble about it. Besides, you have promised."

"My consent has been already given; and I had supposed that the question of our son had decided the matter. Besides, I hoped that Anna Arkadyevna would in her turn have the generosity to understand ...." his trembling lips could hardly utter the words, and he turned pale.

"She leaves all to your magnanimity. She asks, she implores, for only one thing—to be relieved from this unendurable position in which she finds herself. She asks for her son. Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, you are a good man. Just enter for a moment into her feelings. The question of the divorce is for her a matter of life or death. If you had not given your promise, she would have been resigned to her situation, and lived in the country. But you did give your promise; and she wrote you, and came to Moscow. And there in Moscow, where every familiar face was a knife in her heart, she has been living for six months, every day expecting an answer. Her situation is that of a condemned criminal, who for months has had the rope around his neck, and does not know whether he is to expect pardon or execution. Pity her; and, besides, I will take care to arrange all.... vos scrupules." ....

"I am not speaking of that, not of that ...." said Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, with some disgust; "but perhaps I promised more than I had the right to promise."

"Then, you refuse to do what you have promised?" ....

"I never refused to do all that I could; but I must have time to consider how far what I promised is permissible."