Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FIVE CHAPTER 25
Chapter 25
WHEN Alexey Alexandrovitch came into the Countess Lidia Ivanovna’s snug little
boudoir, decorated with old china and hung with portraits, the lady herself
had not yet made her appearance.
She was changing her dress.
A cloth was laid on a round table, and on it stood a china tea service and a silver
spirit-lamp and tea kettle. Alexey Alexandrovitch looked idly about at the endless
familiar portraits which adorned the room, and sitting down to the table, he opened
a New Testament lying upon it. The rustle of the countess’s silk skirt drew his attention
off.
“Well now, we can sit quietly,” said Countess Lidia Ivanovna, slipping hurriedly
with an agitated smile between the table and the sofa, “and talk over our tea.”
After some words of preparation, Countess Lidia Ivanovna, breathing hard and
flushing crimson, gave into Alexey Alexandrovitch’s hands the letter she had received.
After reading the letter, he sat a long while in silence.
“I don’t think I have the right to refuse her,” he said, timidly lifting his eyes.
“Dear friend, you never see evil in anyone!”
“On the contrary, I see that all is evil. But whether it is just...”
His face showed irresolution, and a seeking for counsel, support, and guidance in
a matter he did not understand.
“No,” Countess Lidia Ivanovna interrupted him; “there are limits to everything.
I can understand immorality,” she said, not quite truthfully, since she never could
understand that which leads women to immorality; “but I don’t understand cruelty:
to whom? to you! How can she stay in the town where you are? No, the longer one
lives the more one learns. And I’m learning to understand your loftiness and her
baseness.”
“Who is to throw a stone?” said Alexey Alexandrovitch, unmistakably pleased
with the part he had to play. “I have forgiven all, and so I cannot deprive her of
what is exacted by love in her–by her love for her son....”
“But is that love, my friend? Is it sincere? Admitting that you have forgiven–that
you forgive–have we the right to work on the feelings of that angel? He looks on her
as dead. He prays for her, and beseeches God to have mercy on her sins. And it is
better so. But now what will he think?”
“I had not thought of that,” said Alexey Alexandrovitch, evidently agreeing.
Countess Lidia Ivanovna hid her face in her hands and was silent. she was praying.
“If you ask my advice,” she said, having finished her prayer and uncovered her
face, “I do not advise you to do this. Do you suppose I don’t see how you are suffering,
how this has torn open your wounds? But supposing that, as always, you
don’t think of yourself, what can it lead to?–to fresh suffering for you, to torture for
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