"There, you see, you're talking nonsense, and he's at home!"

responded Stepan Arkadyevitch's voice, addressing the servant,

who had refused to let him in, and taking off his coat as he

went, Oblonsky walked into the room. "Well, I'm awfully glad

I've found you! So I hope..." Stepan Arkadyevitch began

cheerfully.

"I cannot come," Alexey Alexandrovitch said coldly, standing and

not asking his visitor to sit down.

Alexey Alexandrovitch had thought to pass at once into those

frigid relations in which he ought to stand with the brother of a

wife against whom he was beginning a suit for divorce. But he

had not taken into account the ocean of kindliness brimming over

in the heart of Stepan Arkadyevitch.

Stepan Arkadyevitch opened wide his clear, shining eyes.

"Why can't you? What do you mean?" he asked in perplexity,

speaking in French. "Oh, but it's a promise. And we're all

counting on you."

"I want to tell you that I can't dine at your house, because the

terms of relationship which have existed between us must cease."

"How? How do you mean? What for?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch with

a smile.

"Because I am beginning an action for divorce against your

sister, my wife. I ought to have..."

But, before Alexey Alexandrovitch had time to finish his

sentence, Stepan Arkadyevitch was behaving not at all as he had

expected. He groaned and sank into an armchair.

"No, Alexey Alexandrovitch! What are you saying?" cried

Oblonsky, and his suffering was apparent in his face.

"It is so."

"Excuse me, I can't, I can't believe it!"

Alexey Alexandrovitch sat down, feeling that his words had not

had the effect he anticipated, and that it would be unavoidable

for him to explain his position, and that, whatever explanations

he might make, his relations with his brother-in-law would remain

unchanged.

"Yes, I am brought to the painful necessity of seeking a

divorce," he said.

"I will say one thing, Alexey Alexandrovitch. I know you for an

excellent, upright man; I know Anna--excuse me, I can't change my

opinion of her--for a good, an excellent woman; and so, excuse

me, I cannot believe it. There is some misunderstanding," said

he.

"Oh, if it were merely a misunderstanding!..."

"Pardon, I understand," interposed Stepan Arkadyevitch. "But of

course.... One thing: you must not act in haste. You must not,

you must not act in haste!"

"I am not acting in haste," Alexey Alexandrovitch said coldly,

"but one cannot ask advice of anyone in such a matter. I have

quite made up my mind."




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