“‘Possibly I am mistaken,’ said he: ‘in that case, I beg you to forgive me.’
“‘No, you are not mistaken,’ she replied, with measured words, casting a look of despair on her husband’s icy face. ‘You are not mistaken: I hear you, but I am thinking only of him. I love him. I have been false to you. I cannot endure you, I fear you, I hate you! Do with me as you please!’ And, throwing herself into the bottom of the carriage, she covered her face with her hands, and burst into tears.”...
“No one except Karenin’s most intimate friends suspected that this apparently cold and rational man had one weakness absolutely contradictory to the general consistency of his character. He could not look on with indifference when a child or a woman was weeping. The sight of tears caused him to lose his self-control, and destroyed for him his reasoning faculties.
“Karenin in spite of his anger against his wife could not forget the feeling which her weeping caused, and in his effort to control himself his face assumed an appearance of deathlike rigidity. When he reached home he deliberated upon his course. He thought of a duel, but as he was a timid man, he discarded it. He knew that ‘his friends would never allow him to fight and permit the life of a government official so indispensable to Russia to be exposed to danger.’ The service of the state, always important, assumed unwonted magnitude. As to divorce, public scandal would cause him to fall in public opinion. Separation was equally impossible. His only course was to keep his wife under his protection, doing what he could to break off her illicit relationship with Vronsky and preserving in every way possible his ostensible relations with her. ‘Only by acting in this manner,’ he thought to himself, ‘did he conform with the laws of religion, refusing to send away his guilty wife and consecrating his powers to her regeneration.’ He had not thought of finding a foothold in religion until he had settled the matter upon other grounds, then this sanction gave him full comfort and satisfaction.”
But the illicit relations continued and the scandal grew, until at last divorce seemed to him the only remedy, and he began to make preparations for the suit, but from this project he was recalled by a telegram from his wife that she was dying and would die easier if she had his forgiveness. When he reached his home, the Swiss opened the door even before Karenin rang the bell; dressed in an old coat and slippers.
“‘How is the baruina!’
“‘She is as comfortable as could be expected.’
“Karenin turned very pale; he realized how deeply he had hoped for her death.”...
“A uniform overcoat hung in the hall. Karenin noticed it, and asked,—
“‘Who is here?’