Part Six: Chapter 21

by Leo Tolstoy

　　"No, I think the princess is tired, and horses don't interesther," Vronsky said to Anna, who wanted to go on to the stables,where Sviazhsky wished to see the new stallion. "You go on,while I escort the princess home, and we'll have a little talk,"he said, "if you would like that?" he added, turning to her.

　　"I know nothing about horses, and I shall be delighted,"answered Darya Alexandrovna, rather astonished.

　　She saw by Vronsky's face that he wanted something from her. Shewas not mistaken. As soon as they had passed through the littlegate back into the garden, he looked in the direction Anna hadtaken, and having made sure that she could neither hear nor seethem, he began:

　　"You guess that I have something I want to say to you," he said,looking at her with laughing eyes. "I am not wrong in believingyou to be a friend of Anna's." He took off his hat, and takingout his handkerchief, wiped his head, which was growing bald.

　　Darya Alexandrovna made no answer, and merely stared at him withdismay. When she was left alone with him, she suddenly feltafraid; his laughing eyes and stern expression scared her.

　　The most diverse suppositions as to what he was about to speak ofto her flashed into her brain. "He is going to beg me to come tostay with them with the children, and I shall have to refuse; orto create a set will receive Anna in Moscow.... Or isn't itVassenka Veslovsky and his relations with Anna? Or perhaps aboutKitty, that he feels he was to blame?" All her conjectures wereunpleasant, but she did not guess what he really wanted to talkabout to her.

　　"You have so much influence with Anna, she is so fond of you," hesaid; "do help me."

　　Darya Alexandrovna looked with timid inquiry into his energeticface, which under the lime-trees was continually being lighted upin patches by the sunshine, and then passing into complete shadowagain. She waited for him to say more, but he walked in silencebeside her, scratching with his cane in the gravel.

　　"You have come to see us, you, the only woman of Anna's formerfriends--I don't count Princess Varvara--but I know that you havedone this not because you regard our position as normal, butbecause, understanding all the difficulty of the position, youstill love her and want to be a help to her. Have I understoodyou rightly?" he asked, looking round at her.

　　"Oh, yes," answered Darya Alexandrovna, putting down hersunshade, "but..."

　　"No," he broke in, and unconsciously, oblivious of the awkwardposition into which he was putting his companion, he stoppedabruptly, so that she had to stop short too. "No one feels moredeeply and intensely than I do all the difficulty of Anna'sposition; and that you may well understand, if you do me thehonor of supposing I have any heart. I am to blame for thatposition, and that is why I feel it."

　　"I understand," said Darya Alexandrovna, involuntarily admiringthe sincerity and firmness with which he said this. "But justbecause you feel yourself responsible, you exaggerate it, I amafraid," she said. "Her position in the world is difficult, Ican well understand."

　　"In the world it is hell!" he brought out quickly, frowningdarkly. "You can't imagine moral sufferings greater than whatshe went through in Petersburg in that fortnight...and I beg youto believe it."

　　"Yes, but here, so long as neither Anna...nor you misssociety..."

　　"Society!" he said contemptuously, "how could I miss society?"

　　"So far--and it may be so always--you are happy and at peace. Isee in Anna that she is happy, perfectly happy, she has had timeto tell me so much already," said Darya Alexandrovna, smiling;and involuntarily, as she said this, at the same moment a doubtentered her mind whether Anna really were happy.

　　But Vronsky, it appeared, had no doubts on that score.

　　"Yes, yes," he said, "I know that she has revived after all hersufferings; she is happy. She is happy in the present. ButI?... I am afraid of what is before us...I beg your pardon, youwould like to walk on?"

　　"No, I don't mind."

　　"Well, then, let us sit here."

　　Darya Alexandrovna sat down on a garden seat in a corner of theavenue. He stood up facing her.

　　"I see that she is happy," he repeated, and the doubt whether shewere happy sank more deeply into Darya Alexandrovna's mind. "Butcan it last? Whether we have acted rightly or wrongly is anotherquestion, but the die is cast," he said, passing from Russian toFrench, "and we are bound together for life. We are united byall the ties of love that we hold most sacred. We have a child,we may have other children. But the law and all the conditionsof our position are such that thousands of complications arisewhich she does not see and does not want to see. And that onecan well understand. But I can't help seeing them. My daughteris by law not my daughter, but Karenin's. I cannot bear thisfalsity!" he said, with a vigorous gesture of refusal, and helooked with gloomy inquiry towards Darya Alexandrovna.

　　She made no answer, but simply gazed at him. He went on:

　　"One day a son may be born, my son, and he will be legally aKarenin; he will not be the heir of my name nor of my property,and however happy we may be in our home life and however manychildren we may have, there will be no real tie between us. Theywill be Karenins. You can understand the bitterness and horrorof this position! I have tried to speak of this to Anna. Itirritates her. She does not understand, and to her I cannotspeak plainly of all this. Now look at another side. I amhappy, happy in her love, but I must have occupation. I havefound occupation, and am proud of what I am doing and consider itnobler than the pursuits of my former companions at court and inthe army. And most certainly I would not change the work I amdoing for theirs. I am working here, settled in my own place,and I am happy and contented, and we need nothing more to make ushappy. I love my work here. Ce n'est pas un pis-aller, on thecontrary..."

　　Darya Alexandrovna noticed that at this point in his explanationhe grew confused, and she did not quite understand thisdigression, but she felt that having once begun to speak ofmatters near his heart, of which he could not speak to Anna, hewas now making a clean breast of everything, and that thequestion of his pursuits in the country fell into the samecategory of matters near his heart, as the question of hisrelations with Anna.

　　"Well, I will go on," he said, collecting himself. "The greatthing is that as I work I want to have a conviction that what Iam doing will not die with me, that I shall have heirs to comeafter me,--and this I have not. Conceive the position of a manwho knows that his children, the children of the woman he loves,will not be his, but will belong to someone who hates them andcares nothing about them! It is awful!"

　　He paused, evidently much moved.

　　"Yes, indeed, I see that. But what can Anna do?" queried DaryaAlexandrovna.

　　"Yes, that brings me to the object of my conversation," he said,calming himself with an effort. "Anna can, it depends onher.... Even to petition the Tsar for legitimization, a divorceis essential. And that depends on Anna. Her husband agreed to adivorce--at that time your husband had arranged it completely.And now, I know, he would not refuse it. It is only a matter ofwriting to him. He said plainly at that time that if sheexpressed the desire, he would not refuse. Of course," he saidgloomily, "it is one of those Pharisaical cruelties of which onlysuch heartless men are capable. He knows what agony anyrecollection of him must give her, and knowing her, he must havea letter from her. I can understand that it is agony to her.But the matter is of such importance, that one must passerpar-dessus toutes ces finesses de sentiment. Il y va du bonheuret de l'existence d'Anne et de ses enfants. I won't speak ofmyself, though it's hard for me, very hard," he said, with anexpression as though he were threatening someone for its beinghard for him. "And so it is, princess, that I am shamelesslyclutching at you as an anchor of salvation. Help me to persuadeher to write to him and ask for a divorce."

　　"Yes, of course," Darya Alexandrovna said dreamily, as shevividly recalled her last interview with Alexey Alexandrovitch."Yes, of course," she repeated with decision, thinking of Anna.

　　"Use your influence with her, make her write. I don't like--I'malmost unable to speak about this to her."

　　"Very well, I will talk to her. But how is it she does notthink of it herself?" said Darya Alexandrovna, and for somereason she suddenly at that point recalled Anna's strange newhabit of half-closing her eyes. And she remembered that Annadrooped her eyelids just when the deeper questions of life weretouched upon. "Just as though she half-shut her eyes to her ownlife, so as not to see everything," thought Dolly. "Yes, indeed,for my own sake and for hers I will talk to her," Dolly said inreply to his look of gratitude.

　　They got up and walked to the house.