Anna Karenina

‘You see, she’s young, she’s beautiful,’ she went on. ‘Do you understand, Anna, who took my youth and beauty from me? He and his children. I’ve done my service for him, and that service took my all, and now, naturally, he finds a fresh, vulgar creature more agreeable. They’ve surely talked about me between them, or, worse still, passed me over in silence - you understand?’ Again her eyes lit up with hatred. ‘And after that he’s going to tell me ... Am I supposed to believe him? Never. No, it’s the end of everything, everything that made for comfort, a reward for toil, suffering ... Would you believe it? I’ve just been teaching Grisha: before it used to be a joy, now it’s a torment. Why do I strain and toil? Why have children? The terrible thing is that my soul suddenly turned over, and instead of love, of tenderness, I feel only spite towards him, yes, spite. I could kill him and ...’

‘Darling Dolly, I understand, but don’t torment yourself. You’re so offended, so agitated, that you see many things wrongly.’

Dolly quieted down, and for a minute or two they were silent.

‘What’s to be done, think, Anna, help me. I’ve thought it all over and don’t see anything.’

Anna could not think of anything, but her heart responded directly to every word, to every expression on her sister-in-law’s face.

‘I’ll say one thing,’ Anna began. ‘I’m his sister, I know his character, this ability to forget everything, everything’ (she made a gesture in front of her face), ‘this ability for total infatuation, but also for total remorse. He can’t believe, he can’t understand now, how he could have done what he did.’

‘No, he understands, he understood!’ Dolly interrupted. ‘But I ... you’re forgetting me ... is it any easier for me?’

‘Wait. When he was telling me about it, I confess, I still didn’t understand all the horror of your position. I saw only him and that the family was upset; I felt sorry for him, but, talking with you, as a woman I see something else; I see your sufferings, and I can’t tell you how sorry I am for you! But, Dolly, darling, though I fully understand your sufferings, there’s one thing I don’t know: I don’t know ... I don’t know how much love for him there still is in your soul. Only you know whether it’s enough to be able to forgive. If it is, then forgive him!’

‘No,’ Dolly began; but Anna interrupted her, kissing her hand once more.

‘I know more of the world than you do,’ she said. ‘I know how people like Stiva look at it. You say he talked with her about you. That never happened. These people may be unfaithful, but their hearth and wife are sacred to them. Somehow for them these women remain despised and don’t interfere with the family. Between them and the family they draw some sort of line that can’t be crossed. I don’t understand it, but it’s so.’

‘Yes, but he kissed her ...’

‘Dolly, wait, darling. I saw Stiva when he was in love with you. I remember the time when he would come to me and weep, talking about you, and what loftiness and poetry you were for him, and I know that the longer he lived with you, the loftier you became for him. We used to laugh at him, because he added “Dolly is a remarkable woman” to every word. You are and always have been a divinity for him, and this infatuation is not from his soul ...’

‘But if this infatuation repeats itself?’

‘It can’t, as I understand it ...’

‘Yes, but would you forgive?’

‘I don’t know, I can’t judge ... No, I can,’ said Anna, after some reflection; and having mentally grasped the situation and weighed it on her inner balance, she added: ‘No, I can, I can. Yes, I would forgive. I wouldn’t be the same, no, but I would forgive, and forgive in such a way as if it hadn’t happened, hadn’t happened at all.’

‘Well, naturally,’ Dolly quickly interrupted, as if she were saying something she had thought more than once, ‘otherwise it wouldn’t be forgiveness. If you forgive, it’s completely, completely. Well, come along, I’ll take you to your room,’ she said, getting up, and on the way Dolly embraced Anna. ‘My dear, I’m so glad you’ve come. I feel better, so much better.’

XX

That whole day Anna spent at home, that is, at the Oblonskys‘, and did not receive anyone, though some of her acquaintances, having learned of her arrival, called that same day. Anna spent the morning with Dolly and the children. She only sent a little note to her brother, telling him to be sure to dine at home. ‘Come, God is merciful,’ she wrote.

Oblonsky dined at home; the conversation was general, and his wife spoke to him, addressing him familiarly, something she had not done recently. There remained the same estrangement in the relations between husband and wife, but there was no longer any talk of separation, and Stepan Arkadyich could see the possibility of discussion and reconciliation.