Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FOUR CHAPTER 8
suit for divorce. But he had not taken into account the ocean of kindliness brimming
over in the heart of Stepan Arkadyevitch.
Stepan Arkadyevitch opened wide his clear, shining eyes.
“Why can’t you? What do you mean?” he asked in perplexity, speaking in French.
“Oh, but it’s a promise. And we’re all counting on you.”
“I want to tell you that I can’t dine at your house, because the terms of relationship
which have existed between us must cease.”
“How? How do you mean? What for?” said Stepan Arkadyevitch with a smile.
“Because I am beginning an action for divorce against your sister, my wife. I ought
to have...”
But, before Alexey Alexandrovitch had time to finish his sentence, Stepan
Arkadyevitch was behaving not at all as he had expected. He groaned and sank
into an armchair.
“No, Alexey Alexandrovitch! What are you saying?” cried Oblonsky, and his
suffering was apparent in his face.
“It is so.”
“Excuse me, I can’t, I can’t believe it!”
Alexey Alexandrovitch sat down, feeling that his words had not had the effect he
anticipated, and that it would be unavoidable for him to explain his position, and
that, whatever explanations he might make, his relations with his brother-in-law
would remain unchanged.
“Yes, I am brought to the painful necessity of seeking a divorce,” he said.
“I will say one thing, Alexey Alexandrovitch. I know you for an excellent, upright
man; I know Anna–excuse me, I can’t change my opinion of her–for a good, an
excellent woman; and so, excuse me, I cannot believe it. There is some misunderstanding,”
said he.
“Oh, if it were merely a misunderstanding!...”
“Pardon, I understand,” interposed Stepan Arkadyevitch. “But of course.... One
thing: you must not act in haste. You must not, you must not act in haste!”
“I am not acting in haste,” Alexey Alexandrovitch said coldly, “but one cannot ask
advice of anyone in such a matter. I have quite made up my mind.”
“This is awful!” said Stepan Arkadyevitch. “I would do one thing, Alexey Alexandrovitch.
I beseech you, do it!” he said. “No action has yet been taken, if I understand
rightly. Before you take advice, see my wife, talk to her. She loves Anna like a
sister, she loves you, and she’s a wonderful woman. For God’s sake, talk to her! Do
me that favor, I beseech you!”
Alexey Alexandrovitch pondered, and Stepan Arkadyevitch looked at him sympathetically,
without interrupting his silence.
“You will go to see her?”
“I don’t know. That was just why I have not been to see you. I imagine our
relations must change.”
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