Anna Karenina

part of my energies to her reformation and salvation."
Though Alexey Alexandrovitch was perfectly aware that he could not exert
any moral influence over his wife, that such an attempt at reformation could
lead to nothing but falsity; though in passing through these difficult
moments he had not once thought of seeking guidance in religion, yet now,
when his conclusion corresponded, as it seemed to him, with the
requirements of religion, this religious sanction to his decision gave him
complete satisfaction, and to some extent restored his peace of mind. He
was pleased to think that, even in such an important crisis in life, no one
would be able to say that he had not acted in accordance with the principles
of that religion whose banner he had always held aloft amid the general
coolness and indifference. As he pondered over subsequent developments,
Alexey Alexandrovitch did not see, indeed, why his relations with his wife
should not remain practically the same as before. No doubt, she could never
regain his esteem, but there was not, and there could not be, any sort of
reason that his existence should be troubled, and that he should suffer
because she was a bad and faithless wife. "Yes, time will pass; time, which
arranges all things, and the old relations will be reestablished," Alexey
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Alexandrovitch told himself; "so far reestablished, that is, that I shall not be
sensible of a break in the continuity of my life. She is bound to be unhappy,
but I am not to blame, and so I cannot be unhappy."
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Chapter 14
As he neared Petersburg, Alexey Alexandrovitch not only adhered entirely
to his decision, but was even composing in his head the letter he would
write to his wife. Going into the porter's room, Alexey Alexandrovitch
glanced at the letters and papers brought from his office, and directed that
they should be brought to him in his study.
"The horses can be taken out and I will see no one," he said in answer to the
porter, with a certain pleasure, indicative of his agreeable frame of mind,
emphasizing the words, "see no one."
In his study Alexey Alexandrovitch walked up and down twice, and
stopped at an immense writing-table, on which six candles had already
been lighted by the valet who had preceded him. He cracked his knuckles
and sat down, sorting out his writing appurtenances. Putting his elbows on
the table, he bent his head on one side, thought a minute, and began to
write, without pausing for a second. He wrote without using any form of
address to her, and wrote in French, making use of the plural "vous," which
has not the same note of coldness as the corresponding Russian form.
"At our last conversation, I notified you of my intention to communicate to
you my decision in regard to the subject of that conversation. Having
carefully considered everything, I am writing now with the object of
fulfilling that promise. My decision is as follows. Whatever your conduct
may have been, I do not consider myself justified in breaking the ties in
which we are bound by a Higher Power. The family cannot be broken up by
a whim, a caprice, or even by the sin of one of the partners in the marriage,
and our life must go on as it has done in the past. This is essential for me,
for you, and for our son. I am fully persuaded that you have repented and
do repent of what has called forth the present letter, and that you will
cooperate with me in eradicating the cause of our estrangement, and
forgetting the past. In the contrary event, you can conjecture what awaits
you and your son. All this I hope to discuss more in detail in a personal
interview. As the season is drawing to a close, I would beg you to return to
Petersburg as quickly as possible, not later than Tuesday. All necessary
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preparations shall be made for your arrival here. I beg you to note that I
attach particular significance to compliance with this request.
A. Karenin
"P.S.--I enclose the money which may be needed for your expenses."
He read the letter through and felt pleased with it, and especially that he
had remembered to enclose money: there was not a harsh word, not a
reproach in it, nor was there undue indulgence. Most of all, it was a golden
bridge for return. Folding the letter and smoothing it with a massive ivory
knife, and putting it in an envelope with the money, he rang the bell with
the gratification it always afforded him to use the well arranged
appointments of his writing-table.
"Give this to the courier to be delivered to Anna Arkadyevna tomorrow at
the summer villa," he said, getting up.
"Certainly, your excellency; tea to be served in the study?"
Alexey Alexandrovitch ordered tea to be brought to the study, and playing
with the massive paper-knife, he moved to his easy chair, near which there
had been placed ready for him a lamp and the French work on Egyptian
hieroglyphics that he had begun. Over the easy chair there hung in a gold
frame an oval portrait of Anna, a fine painting by a celebrated artist. Alexey
Alexandrovitch glanced at it. The unfathomable eyes gazed ironically and
insolently at him. Insufferably insolent and challenging was the effect in
Alexey Alexandrovitch's eyes of the black lace about the head, admirably
touched in by the painter, the black hair and handsome white hand with one
finger lifted, covered with rings. After looking at the portrait for a minute,
Alexey Alexandrovitch shuddered so that his lips quivered and he uttered
the sound "brrr," and turned away. He made haste to sit down in his easy
chair and opened the book. He tried to read, but he could not revive the
very vivid interest he had felt before in Egyptian hieroglyphics. He looked
at the book and thought of something else. He thought not of his wife, but
of a complication that had arisen in his official life, which at the time
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constituted the chief interest of it. He felt that he had penetrated more
deeply than ever before into this intricate affair, and that he had originated a
leading idea--he could say it without self-flattery--calculated to clear up the
whole business, to strengthen him in his official career, to discomfit his
enemies, and thereby to be of the greatest benefit to the government.
Directly the servant had set the tea and left the room, Alexey
Alexandrovitch got up and went to the writing-table. Moving into the
middle of the table a portfolio of papers, with a scarcely perceptible smile
of self-satisfaction, he took a pencil from a rack and plunged into the
perusal of a complex report relating to the present complication. The
complication was of this nature: Alexey Alexandrovitch's characteristic
quality as a politician, that special individual qualification that every rising
functionary possesses, the qualification that with his unflagging ambition,
his reserve, his honesty, and with his self-confidence had made his career,
was his contempt for red tape, his cutting down of correspondence, his
direct contact, wherever possible, with the living fact, and his economy. It
happened that the famous Commission of the 2nd of June had set on foot an
inquiry into the irrigation of lands in the Zaraisky province, which fell
under Alexey Alexandrovitch's department, and was a glaring example of
fruitless expenditure and paper reforms. Alexey Alexandrovitch was aware
of the truth of this. The irrigation of these lands in the Zaraisky province
had been initiated by the predecessor of Alexey Alexandrovitch's
predecessor. And vast sums of money had actually been spent and were still
being spent on this business, and utterly unproductively, and the whole
business could obviously lead to nothing whatever. Alexey Alexandrovitch
had perceived this at once on entering office, and would have liked to lay
hands on the Board of Irrigation. But at first, when he did not yet feel
secure in his position, he knew it would affect too many interests, and
would be injudicious. Later on he had been engrossed in other questions,
and had simply forgotten the Board of Irrigation. It went of itself, like all
such boards, by the mere force of inertia. (Many people gained their
livelihood by the Board of Irrigation, especially one highly conscientious
and musical family: all the daughters played on stringed instruments, and
Alexey Alexandrovitch knew the family and had stood godfather to one of
the elder daughters.) The raising of this question by a hostile department
was in Alexey Alexandrovitch's opinion a dishonorable proceeding, seeing
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that in every department there were things similar and worse, which no one
inquired into, for well-known reasons of official etiquette. However, now
that the glove had been thrown down to him, he had boldly picked it up and
demanded the appointment of a special commission to investigate and
verify the working of the Board of Irrigation of the lands in the Zaraisky
province. But in compensation he gave no quarter to the enemy either. He
demanded the appointment of another special commission to inquire into
the question of the Native Tribes Organization Committee. The question of
the Native Tribes had been brought up incidentally in the Commission of
the 2nd of June, and had been pressed forward actively by Alexey
Alexandrovitch as one admitting of no delay on account of the deplorable
condition bf the native tribes. In the commission this question had been a
ground of contention between several departments. The department hostile
to Alexey Alexandrovitch proved that the condition of the native tribes was
exceedingly flourishing, that the proposed reconstruction might be the ruin
of their prosperity, and that if there were anything wrong, it arose mainly
from the failure on the part of Alexey Alexandrovitch's department to carry
out the measures prescribed by law. Now Alexey Alexandrovitch intended
to demand: First, that a new commission should be formed which should be
empowered to investigate the condition of the native tribes on the spot;
secondly, if it should appear that the condition of the native tribes actually
was such as it appeared to be from the official documents in the hands of
the committee, that another new scientific commission should be appointed
to investigate the deplorable condition of the native tribes from the--(1)
political, (2) administrative, (3) economic, (4) ethnographical, (5) material,
and (6) religious points of view; thirdly, that evidence should be required
from the rival department of the measures that had been taken during the
last ten years by that department for averting the disastrous conditions in
which the native tribes were now placed; and fourthly and finally, that that
department explain why it had, as appeared from the evidence before the
committee, from No. 17,015 and 18,038, from December 5, 1863, and June
7, 1864, acted in direct contravention of the intent of the law T...Act 18,
and the note to Act 36. A flash of eagerness suffused the face of Alexey
Alexandrovitch as he rapidly wrote out a synopsis of these ideas for his
own benefit. Having filled a sheet of paper, he got up, rang, and sent a note
to the chief secretary of his department to look up certain necessary facts
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for him. Getting up and walking about the room, he glanced again at the
portrait, frowned, and smiled contemptuously. After reading a little more of
the book on Egyptian hieroglyphics, and renewing his interest in it, Alexey
Alexandrovitch went to bed at eleven o'clock, and recollecting as he lay in
bed the incident with his wife, he saw it now in by no means such a gloomy
light.
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