Anna Karenina - Part 7

Never before had a day been passed in quarrel. Today was the

first time. And this was not a quarrel. It was the open

acknowledgment of complete coldness. Was it possible to glance

at her as he had glanced when he came into the room for the

guarantee?--to look at her, see her heart was breaking with

despair, and go out without a word with that face of callous

composure? He was not merely cold to her, he hated her because

he loved another woman--that was clear.

And remembering all the cruel words he had said, Anna supplied,

too, the words that he had unmistakably wished to say and could

have said to her, and she grew more and more exasperated.

"I won't prevent you," he might say. "You can go where you like.

You were unwilling to be divorced from your husband, no doubt so

that you might go back to him. Go back to him. If you want

money, I'll give it to you. How many roubles do you want?"

All the most cruel words that a brutal man could say, he said to

her in her imagination, and she could not forgive him for them,

as though he had actually said them.

"But didn't he only yesterday swear he loved me, he, a truthful

and sincere man? Haven't I despaired for nothing many times

already?" she said to herself afterwards.

All that day, except for the visit to Wilson's, which occupied

two hours, Anna spent in doubts whether everything were over or

whether there were still hope of reconciliation, whether she

should go away at once or see him once more. She was expecting

him the whole day, and in the evening, as she went to her own

room, leaving a message for him that her head ached, she said to

herself, "If he comes in spite of what the maid says, it means

that he loves me still. If not, it means that all is over, and

then I will decide what I'm to do!..."

In the evening she heard the rumbling of his carriage stop at the

entrance, his ring, his steps and his conversation with the

servant; he believed what was told him, did not care to find out

more, and went to his own room. So then everything was over.

And death rose clearly and vividly before her mind as the sole

means of bringing back love for her in his heart, of punishing

him and of gaining the victory in that strife which the evil

spirit in possession of her heart was waging with him.