Anna Karenina (Dole)/Part Four/Chapter 12
CHAPTER XII
The discussion about the emancipation of women led to talk about the inequality of rights in marriage, and this was a ticklish subject to speak about in the presence of the ladies. Pestsof during the dinner several times touched on this question, but Sergyeï Ivanovitch and Stepan Arkadyevitch warily diverted him from it. But as soon as dinner was over and the ladies had retired, Pestsof addressed Alekseï Aleksandrovitch and attempted to explain the chief cause of this inequality. The inequality of rights between husband and wife in marriage depended, in his opinion, on the fact that the infidelity of a wife and that of a husband was unequally punished, both by law and by public opinion.
Stepan Arkadyevitch hastened over to Alekseï Aleksandrovitch and offered him a cigar.
"No, I do not smoke," replied Karenin, calmly; and as if to prove that he was not afraid of this conversation, he turned toward Pestsof with his icy smile:—
"I imagine that such a view is based on the very nature of things," said he, and he started to go to the drawing-room; but here Turovtsuin suddenly spoke up, addressing Alekseï Aleksandrovitch.
"Have you heard the story about Priatchnikof?" he asked. He was animated by the champagne, and had been impatiently waiting for a chance to break a silence which weighed heavily on him. "Vasia Priatchnikof?" he repeated, with a good-natured smile on his thick lips, red and moist, and he addressed Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, as the most important guest. "I was told this morning that he fought a duel at Tver, with Kvitsky, and killed him."
As it always seems as if a sore spot were peculiarly liable to be hit, so now Stepan Arkadyevitch thought the conversation was fated every moment to touch Alekseï Aleksandrovitch on the sore spot. He was on the point of going to his brother-in-law's assistance; but Alekseï Aleksandrovitch asked, with curiosity:—"Why did Priatchnikof fight a duel?"
"On account of his wife; he behaved bravely about it,—he challenged the other man, and killed him."
"Ah!" said Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, with unconcern; and, raising his eyebrows, he went to the drawing-room.
Dolly met him in a little parlor leading into the drawing-room, and said, smiling timidly:—
"How glad I am that you came! I want to talk with you. Let us sit down here."
Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, preserving the air of indifference caused by his elevated eyebrows, sat down near her, pretending to smile.
"All the more willingly," said he, "as I wish to ask you to excuse me for leaving you as soon as possible. I have to go away to-morrow morning."
Darya Aleksandrovna was firmly convinced of Anna's innocence, and she was conscious of growing pale and trembling with anger before this heartless, unfeeling man, who coolly proposed to ruin her innocent friend.
"Alekseï Aleksandrovitch," she said with desperate firmness, looking him full in the face, "I asked you about Anna, and you did not reply; how is she?"
"I think that she is well, Darya Aleksandrovna," replied Karenin, without looking at her.
"Pardon me, if I have no right to insist on it .... but I love Anna like a sister; tell me, I beseech you, what has happened between you and her, and what do you accuse her of."
Alekseï Aleksandrovitch frowned, and bent his head, almost closing his eyes:—
"Your husband must have told you, I think, the reasons which oblige me to break my relations with Anna Arkadyevna," said he, avoiding her eyes but casting a glance of annoyance at Shcherbatsky, who was passing through the room.
"I do not believe it, I do not believe it! and I cannot believe it!" murmured Dolly, pressing her thin hands together energetically. She rose quickly, and, touching Alekseï Aleksandrovitch's arm, said, "We shall be disturbed here; let us go in there, please."
Dolly's emotion communicated itself to Alekseï Aleksandrovitch; he arose, and submissively followed her into the children's schoolroom. They seated themselves at a table covered with an oil-cloth, hacked with penknives.
"I don't believe it, I don't believe it!" repeated Dolly, trying to catch his eye, which avoided hers.
"One cannot deny facts, Darya Aleksandrovna," said he, dwelling on the word facts.
"But what has she done?" insisted Darya Aleksandrovna, "precisely what has she done?"
"She has failed to do her duty, and been false to her husband. That is what she has done," said he.
"No, no! it is impossible! no, thank the Lord, you are mistaken!" cried Dolly, putting her hands to her temples, and closing her eyes.
AlekseÏ Aleksandrovitch smiled coldly with his lips only; he wished to prove to Dolly, and to prove to himself, the firmness of his conviction. But this heated defense of his wife, though it did not shake him, irritated his wound. He spoke with more animation:—
"It is difficult to make a mistake when a woman herself declares to her husband that eight years of married life and a son count for nothing, and that she wishes to begin life over again," he replied angrily, dilating his nostrils.
"Anna and vice! I cannot associate the two ideas; I cannot believe it."
"Darya Aleksandrovna!"—said he, angrily, now looking straight at Dolly's distressed face, and feeling his tongue involuntarily unloosed,—"I would give a great deal to be able still to have any doubts! When I was in doubt about it, it was hard for me, but easier than it is now. When I doubted, there was still hope. Now there is no hope, and I have doubted everything. I am so full of doubt that I detest my son, and sometimes I do not believe that he is my son. I am very unhappy!"He had no need to say that. Darya Aleksandrovna understood it as soon as she looked into his face. She pitied him, and her faith in her friend's innocence was shaken.
"Oh! it is terrible, terrible! but is it true that you are really decided about the divorce?"
"I have decided to take this last measure. There was nothing else for me to do."
"Don't do it! Don't do it!" cried Dolly, with tears in her eyes. "No, don't do it!"
"The most dreadful thing about a misfortune of this kind is that one cannot bear his cross as in any other,—a loss or a death,—and here one must do something," said he, apparently divining Dolly's thought. "One must escape from the humiliating position in which one is placed; on ne peut vivre a trois!"
"I understand, I understand perfectly," replied Dolly, bowing her head. She was silent, thinking of herself, of her own domestic troubles; but suddenly with an energetic movement she raised her head, and with a suppli-cating gesture she folded her hands.
"But wait," she said; "you are a Christian, think of her! What will become of her if you abandon her?"
"I have thought of it, Darya Aleksandrovna. I have thought a great deal about it," said Alekseï Aleksandrovitch. His face was covered with red blotches and his troubled eyes looked straight at her. Darya Aleksandrovna pitied him now from the bottom of her heart. "I did this very thing after she herself had told me of her disgrace. I put everything on the old footing. I gave her the chance of reformation. I tried to save her. What did she do then? She paid no attention to the easiest of demands,—observance of propriety!" he added, choking. "One can save a man who does not want to perish; but if his whole nature is so corrupt, so rotten, that ruin itself seems salvation, what can be done?"
"Everything, except divorce," replied Darya Aleksandrovna.
"What do you mean by everything?""No, that is horrible! She will no longer be any one's wife. She will be lost!"
"What can I do?" replied Karenin, raising his shoulders and his eyebrows; and the memory of his wife's last offense so angered him that he became as cool as at the beginning of the conversation. "I am very grateful to you for your sympathy, but I must go," he added, rising.
"No, wait a moment! you must not give her up: listen to me; I speak from experience. I, too, was married, and my husband deceived me: in my jealousy and indignation, I wished to abandon everything; but I considered the matter, and who saved me? Anna! Now I am living again. Now my children are growing up, my husband has returned to his family, regrets his wrong-doing, is growing better, nobler. I live, I have forgiven him; and you ought to forgive her!"
Alekseï Aleksandrovitch listened; but Dolly's words had no effect on him. Again in his soul arose the anger of that day when he decided on a divorce. He shook himself and spoke in a loud, penetrating voice:—
"I cannot, nor do I wish to forgive her. It would be unjust. I have done what was next to impossible for this woman, and she has trampled everything into the mire, which seems to be her element. I am not a bad man, and I have never hated anybody before; but her I hate with all the strength of my soul, and I cannot forgive her, for I hate her too much for all the wrong she has done me!" and tears of anger trembled in his voice.
"Love them that hate you," murmured Dolly, almost ashamed.
Alekseï Aleksandrovitch smiled scornfully. He was familiar with these words, but they did not apply to his case.
"We can love those who hate us, but to love those whom we hate is impossible. I beg your pardon for having troubled you: sufficient unto every man is his own burden." And having recovered his self-possession, AlekseÏ Aleksandrovitch calmly took leave of Dolly, and went away.