第267章

`Yes, but here, so long as neither Anna... nor you want society...'

`Society!' he said contemptuously. `How could I want society?'

`So far - and it may be so always - you are happy and at peace.

I see in Anna that she is happy, perfectly happy - she has had time to tell me so much already,' said Darya Alexandrovna, smiling; and involuntarily, as she said this, at the same moment a doubt entered her mind whether Anna really were happy.

But Vronsky, it appeared, had no doubts on that score.

`Yes, yes,' he said, `I know that she has revived after all her sufferings; she is happy. She is happy in the present. But I?... I am afraid of what is before us... I beg your pardon - you would like to walk on?'

`No, I don't mind.'

`Well, then, let us sit here.'

Darya Alexandrovna sat down on a garden seat in a corner of the avenue. He stood up, facing her.

`I see that she is happy,' he repeated, and the doubt whether she were happy sank more deeply into Darya Alexandrovna's mind. `But can it last? Whether we have acted rightly or wrongly is another question, but the die is cast,' he said, passing from Russian to French, `and we are bound together for life. We are united by all the ties of love that we hold most sacred. We have a child, we may have other children. But the law and all the conditions of our position are such that thousands of complications arise which she does not see at present, and does not want to see, setting her heart at rest after all these sufferings and ordeals. And that one can well understand. But I can't help seeing them. My daughter is by law not my daughter, but Karenin's. I cannot bear this falsity!' he said, with a vigorous gesture of refusal, and he looked with gloomy inquiry toward Darya Alexandrovna.

She made no answer, but simply gazed at him. He went on:

`One day a son may be born, my son, and he will be legally a Karenin;he will not be the heir of my name nor of my property; and however happy we may be in our home life, and however many children we may have, there will be no real tie between us. They will be Karenin's. You will understand the bitterness and horror of this position! I have tried to speak of this to Anna. It irritates her. She does not understand, and to her I cannot speak plainly of all this. Now look at another side. I am happy, happy in her love, but I must have occupation. I have found occupation, and am proud of what I am doing, and consider it nobler than the pursuits of my former companions at Court and in the army. And most certainly I would not change the work I am doing for theirs. I am working here, settled in my own place, and I am happy and contented, and we need nothing more to make us happy. I love my work here. Ce n'est pas un pis-aller , on the contrary...'

Darya Alexandrovna noticed that at this point in his explanation he grew confused, and she did not quite understand this digression, but she felt that having once begun to speak of matters near his heart, of which he could not speak to Anna, he was now making a clean breast of everything, and that the question of his pursuits in the country fell into the same compartment of his intimate meditations as the question of his relations with Anna.

`Well, I will go on,' he said, collecting himself. `The great thing is that as I work I want to have a conviction that what I am doing will not die with me, that I shall have heirs to come after me - and this I have not. Conceive the position of a man who knows that his children, the children of the woman he loves, will not be his, but will belong to someone who hates them and cares nothing about them! It is awful!

He paused, evidently much moved.

`Yes, indeed, I see that. But what can Anna do?' queried Darya Alexandrovna.

`Yes, that brings me to the object of my conversation,' he said, calming himself with an effort. `Anna can, it depends on her.... Even to petition the Czar for legitimization, a divorce is essential. And that depends on Anna. Her husband agreed to a divorce - at that time your husband had arranged it completely. And now, I know, he would not refuse it. It is only a matter of writing to him. He said plainly at that time that if she expressed the desire, he would not refuse. Of course,' he said gloomily, `it is one of those Pharisaical cruelties of which only such heartless men are capable. He knows what agony any recollection of him must give her, and knowing her, he must have a letter from her. I can understand that it is agony to her. But the matter is of such importance, that one must passer pardessus toutes ces finesses de sentiment. Il y va du bonheur et de l'existence d'Anne et de ses enfants . I won't speak of myself, though it's hard for me, very hard,' he said, with an expression as though he were threatening someone for its being hard for him. `And so it is, Princess, that I am shamelessly clutching at you as an anchor of salvation.

Help me to persuade her to write to him and ask for a divorce.'

`Yes, of course,' Darya Alexandrovna said dreamily, as she vividly recalled her last interview with Alexei Alexandrovich. `Yes, of course,'

she repeated with decision, thinking of Anna.

`Use your influence with her, make her write. I don't like - I'm almost unable to speak about this to her.'

`Very well, I will talk to her. But how is it she does not think of it herself?' said Darya Alexandrovna, and for some reason she suddenly at that point recalled Anna's strange new habit of half-closing her eyes.

And she remembered that Anna drooped her eyelids just when the deeper questions of life were touched upon. `Just as though she half-shut her eyes to her own life, so as not to see everything,' thought Dolly. `Yes, indeed, for my own sake and for hers, I will talk to her,' Dolly said in reply to his expression of gratitude.

They got up and walked to the house.

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TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 22[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] Chapter 22 When Anna found Dolly at home before her, she looked intently in her eyes, as though questioning her about the talk she had had with Vronsky, but she made no inquiry in words.