Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FOUR CHAPTER 20
Never had the impossibility of his position in the world’s eyes, and his wife’s hatred
of him, and altogether the might of that mysterious brutal force that guided his
life against his spiritual inclinations, and exacted conformity with its decrees and
change in his attitude to his wife, been presented to him with such distinctness as
that day. He saw clearly that all the world and his wife expected of him something,
but what exactly, he could not make out. He felt that this was rousing in his soul a
feeling of anger destructive of his peace of mind and of all the good of his achievement.
He believed that for Anna herself it would be better to break off all relations
with Vronsky; but if they all thought this out of the question, he was even ready to allow
these relations to be renewed, so long as the children were not disgraced, and he
was not deprived of them nor forced to change his position. Bad as this might be, it
was anyway better than a rupture, which would put her in a hopeless and shameful
position, and deprive him of everything he cared for. But he felt helpless; he knew
beforehand that every one was against him, and that he would not be allowed to do
what seemed to him now so natural and right, but would be forced to do what was
wrong, though it seemed the proper thing to them.
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