Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART THREE CHAPTER 23
“I cannot be your wife while I...” she began.
He laughed a cold and malignant laugh.
“The manner of life you have chosen is reflected, I suppose, in your ideas. I
have too much respect or contempt, or both...I respect your past and despise your
present...that I was far from the interpretation you put on my words.”
Anna sighed and bowed her head.
“Though indeed I fail to comprehend how, with the independence you show,” he
went on, getting hot, “–announcing your infidelity to your husband and seeing nothing
reprehensible in it, apparently–you can see anything reprehensible in performing
a wife’s duties in relation to your husband.”
“Alexey Alexandrovitch! What is it you want of me?”
“I want you not to meet that man here, and to conduct yourself so that neither the
world nor the servants can reproach you...not to see him. That’s not much, I think.
And in return you will enjoy all the privileges of a faithful wife without fulfilling her
duties. That’s all I have to say to you. Now it’s time for me to go. I’m not dining at
home.” He got up and moved towards the door.
Anna got up too. Bowing in silence, he let her pass before him.
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