1010 1011
away this tangle of whirling, mad ideas.
“No, I don’t know; it’s not right,” was all she said, with an expression
of disgust on her face.
“Yes, but you mustn’t forget that you and I.... And besides that,”
added Anna, in spite of the wealth of her arguments and the poverty of
Dolly’s objections, seeming still to admit that it was not right, “don’t
forget the chief point, that I am not now in the same position as you.
For you the question is: do you desire not to have any more children;
while for me it is: do I desire to have them? And that’s a great differ-
ence. You must see that I can’t desire it in my position.”
Darya Alexandrovna made no reply. She suddenly felt that she
had got far away from Anna; that there lay between them a barrier of
questions on which they could never agree, and about which it was
better not to speak.
Chapter 24.
“Then there is all the more reason for you to legalize your position,
if possible,” said Dolly.
“Yes, if possible,” said Anna, speaking all at once in an utterly
different tone, subdued and mournful.
“Surely you don’t mean a divorce is impossible? I was told your
husband had consented to it.”
“Dolly, I don’t want to talk about that.”
“Oh, we won’t then,” Darya Alexandrovna hastened to say, notic-
ing the expression of suffering on Anna’s face. “All I see is that you
take too gloomy a view of things.”
“I? Not at all! I’m always bright and happy. You see, je fais des
passions. Veslovsky...”
“Yes, to tell the truth, I don’t like Veslovsky’s tone,” said Darya
Alexandrovna, anxious to change the subject.
“Oh, that’s nonsense! It amuses Alexey, and that’s all; but he’s a
boy, and quite under my control. You know, I turn him as I please. It’s
just as it might be with your Grisha.... Dolly!”— she suddenly changed
the subject—”you say I take too gloomy a view of things. You can’t
understand. It’s too awful! I try not to take any view of it at all.”
“But I think you ought to. You ought to do all you can.”
“But what can I do? Nothing. You tell me to marry Alexey, and say