Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FOUR CHAPTER 22
up even my son, but...but wouldn’t it be better to let it alone? Still you may do as
you like...”
And turning away so that his brother-in-law could not see him, he sat down on
a chair at the window. There was bitterness, there was shame in his heart, but with
bitterness and shame he felt joy and emotion at the height of his own meekness.
Stepan Arkadyevitch was touched. He was silent for a space.
“Alexey Alexandrovitch, believe me, she appreciates your generosity,” he said.
“But it seems it was the will of God,” he added, and as he said it felt how foolish a
remark it was, and with difficulty repressed a smile at his own foolishness.
Alexey Alexandrovitch would have made some reply, but tears stopped him.
“This is an unhappy fatality, and one must accept it as such. I accept the calamity
as an accomplished fact, and am doing my best to help both her and you,” said
Stepan Arkadyevitch.
When he went out of his brother-in-law’s room he was touched, but that did not
prevent him from being glad he had successfully brought the matter to a conclusion,
for he felt certain Alexey Alexandrovitch would not go back on his words. To this
satisfaction was added the fact that an idea had just struck him for a riddle turning
on his successful achievement, that when the affair was over he would ask his wife
and most intimate friends. He put this riddle into two or three different ways. “But
I’ll work it out better than that,” he said to himself with a smile.
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