Part Four: Chapter 22

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch, with the same somewhat solemn expressionwith which he used to take his presidential chair at his board,walked into Alexey Alexandrovitch's room. Alexey Alexandrovitchwas walking about his room with his hands behind his back,thinking of just what Stepan Arkadyevitch had been discussingwith his wife.

　　"I'm not interrupting you?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, on thesight of his brother-in-law becoming suddenly aware of a sense ofembarrassment unusual with him. To conceal this embarrassment hetook out a cigarette case he had just bought that opened in a newway, and sniffing the leather, took a cigarette out of it.

　　"No. Do you want anything?" Alexey Alexandrovitch asked withouteagerness.

　　"Yes, I wished...I wanted...yes, I wanted to talk to you," saidStepan Arkadyevitch, with surprise aware of an unaccustomedtimidity.

　　This feeling was so unexpected and so strange that he did notbelieve it was the voice of conscience telling him that what hewas meaning to do was wrong.

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch made an effort and struggled with thetimidity that had come over him.

　　"I hope you believe in my love for my sister and my sincereaffection and respect for you," he said, reddening.

　　Alexey Alexandrovitch stood still and said nothing, but his facestruck Stepan Arkadyevitch by its expression of an unresistingsacrifice.

　　"I intended...I wanted to have a little talk with you about mysister and your mutual position," he said, still struggling withan unaccustomed constraint.

　　Alexey Alexandrovitch smiled mournfully, looked at hisbrother-in-law, and without answering went up to the table, tookfrom it an unfinished letter, and handed it to hisbrother-in-law.

　　"I think unceasingly of the same thing. And here is what I hadbegun writing, thinking I could say it better by letter, andthat my presence irritates her," he said, as he gave him theletter.

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch took the letter, looked with increduloussurprise at the lusterless eyes fixed so immovably on him, andbegan to read.

　　"I see that my presence is irksome to you. Painful as it is tome to believe it, I see that it is so, and cannot be otherwise.I don't blame you, and God is my witness that on seeing you atthe time of your illness I resolved with my whole heart to forgetall that had passed between us and to begin a new life. I do notregret, and shall never regret, what I have done; but I havedesired one thing--your good, the good of your soul--and now Isee I have not attained that. Tell me yourself what will giveyou true happiness and peace to your soul. I put myself entirelyin your hands, and trust to your feeling of what's right."

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch handed back the letter, and with the samesurprise continued looking at his brother-in-law, not knowingwhat to say. This silence was so awkward for both of them thatStepan Arkadyevitch's lips began twitching nervously, while hestill gazed without speaking at Karenin's face.

　　"That's what I wanted to say to her," said Alexey Alexandrovitch,turning away.

　　"Yes, yes..." said Stepan Arkadyevitch, not able to answer forthe tears that were choking him.

　　"Yes, yes, I understand you," he brought out at last.

　　"I want to know what she would like," said Alexey Alexandrovitch.

　　"I am afraid she does not understand her own position. She isnot a judge," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, recovering himself. "Sheis crushed, simply crushed by your generosity. If she were toread this letter, she would be incapable of saying anything, shewould only hang her head lower than ever."

　　"Yes, but what's to be done in that case? how explain, how findout her wishes?"

　　"If you will allow me to give my opinion, I think that it lieswith you to point out directly the steps you consider necessaryto end the position."

　　"So you consider it must be ended?" Alexey Alexandrovitchinterrupted him. "But how?" he added, with a gesture of hishands before his eyes not usual with him. "I see no possible wayout of it."

　　"There is some way of getting out of every position," said StepanArkadyevitch, standing up and becoming more cheerful. "There wasa time when you thought of breaking off.... If you are convincednow that you cannot make each other happy..."

　　"Happiness may be variously understood. But suppose that I agreeto everything, that I want nothing: what way is there of gettingout of our position?"

　　"If you care to know my opinion," said Stepan Arkadyevitch withthe same smile of softening, almond-oil tenderness with which hehad been talking to Anna. His kindly smile was so winning thatAlexey Alexandrovitch, feeling his own weakness and unconsciouslyswayed by it, was ready to believe what Stepan Arkadyevitch wassaying.

　　"She will never speak out about it. But one thing is possible,one thing she might desire," he went on: "that is the cessationof your relations and all memories associated with them. To mythinking, in your position what's essential is the formation of anew attitude to one another. And that can only rest on a basisof freedom on both sides."

　　"Divorce," Alexey Alexandrovitch interrupted, in a tone ofaversion.

　　"Yes, I imagine that divorce--yes, divorce," Stepan Arkadyevitchrepeated, reddening. "That is from every point of view the mostrational course for married people who find themselves in theposition you are in. What can be done if married people findthat life is impossible for them together? That may alwayshappen."

　　Alexey Alexandrovitch sighed heavily and closed his eyes.

　　"There's only one point to be considered: is either of theparties desirous of forming new ties? If not, it is verysimple," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, feeling more and more freefrom constraint.

　　Alexey Alexandrovitch, scowling with emotion, muttered somethingto himself, and made no answer. All that seemed so simple toStepan Arkadyevitch, Alexey Alexandrovitch had thought overthousands of times. And, so far from being simple, it all seemedto him utterly impossible. Divorce, the details of which he knewby this time, seemed to him now out of the question, because thesense of his own dignity and respect for religion forbade histaking upon himself a fictitious charge of adultery, and stillmore suffering his wife, pardoned and beloved by him, to becaught in the fact and put to public shame. Divorce appeared tohim impossible also on other still more weighty grounds.

　　What would become of his son in case of a divorce? To leave himwith his mother was out of the question. The divorced motherwould have her own illegitimate family, in which his position asa stepson and his education would not be good. Keep him withhim? He knew that would be an act of vengeance on his part, andthat he did not want. But apart from this, what more than allmade divorce seem impossible to Alexey Alexandrovitch was, thatby consenting to a divorce he would be completely ruining Anna.The saying of Darya Alexandrovna at Moscow, that in deciding on adivorce he was thinking of himself, and not considering that bythis he would be ruining her irrevocably, had sunk into hisheart. And connecting this saying with his forgiveness of her,with his devotion to the children, he understood it now in hisown way. To consent to a divorce, to give her her freedom, meantin his thoughts to take from himself the last tie that bound himto life--the children whom he loved; and to take from her thelast prop that stayed her on the path of right, to thrust herdown to her ruin. If she were divorced, he knew she would joinher life to Vronsky's, and their tie would be an illegitimate andcriminal one, since a wife, by the interpretation of theecclesiastical law, could not marry while her husband was living."She will join him, and in a year or two he will throw her over,or she will form a new tie," thought Alexey Alexandrovitch. "AndI, by agreeing to an unlawful divorce, shall be to blame for herruin." He had thought it all over hundreds of times, and wasconvinced that a divorce was not at all simple, as StepanArkadyevitch had said, but was utterly impossible. He did notbelieve a single word Stepan Arkadyevitch said to him; to everyword he had a thousand objections to make, but he listened tohim, feeling that his words were the expression of that mightybrutal force which controlled his life and to which he would haveto submit.

　　"The only question is on what terms you agree to give her adivorce. She does not want anything, does not dare ask you foranything, she leaves it all to your generosity."

　　"My God, my God! what for?" thought Alexey Alexandrovitch,remembering the details of divorce proceedings in which thehusband took the blame on himself, and with just the same gesturewith which Vronsky had done the same, he hid his face for shamein his hands.

　　"You are distressed, I understand that. But if you think itover..."

　　"Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him theother also; and if any man take away thy coat, let him have thycloak also," thought Alexey Alexandrovitch.

　　"Yes, yes!" he cried in a shrill voice. "I will take thedisgrace on myself, I will give up even my son, but...butwouldn't it be better to let it alone? Still you may do as youlike..."

　　And turning away so that his brother-in-law could not see him, hesat down on a chair at the window. There was bitterness, therewas shame in his heart, but with bitterness and shame he felt joyand emotion at the height of his own meekness.

　　Stepan Arkadyevitch was touched. He was silent for a space.

　　"Alexey Alexandrovitch, believe me, she appreciates yourgenerosity," he said. "But it seems it was the will of God," headded, and as he said it felt how foolish a remark it was, andwith difficulty repressed a smile at his own foolishness.

　　Alexey Alexandrovitch would have made some reply, but tearsstopped him.

　　"This is an unhappy fatality, and one must accept it as such. Iaccept the calamity as an accomplished fact, and am doing my bestto help both her and you," said Stepan Arkadyevitch.

　　When he went out of his brother-in-law's room he was touched, butthat did not prevent him from being glad he had successfullybrought the matter to a conclusion, for he felt certain AlexeyAlexandrovitch would not go back on his words. To thissatisfaction was added the fact that an idea had just struck himfor a riddle turning on his successful achievement, that when theaffair was over he would ask his wife and most intimate friends.He put this riddle into two or three different ways. "But I'llwork it out better than that," he said to himself with a smile.