Divorce, moreover, broke off all intercourse between wife and husband, and united her to her paramour. Now in Alekseï Aleksandrovitch's heart, in spite of the scornful indifference which he affected to feel toward his wife, there still remained one very keen sentiment, and that was his unwillingness for her, unhindered, to unite her lot with Vronsky, so that her fault would turn out to her advantage.
This possible contingency was so painful to Alekseï Aleksandrovitch that, merely at the thought of it, he bellowed with mental pain; and he got up from his seat, changed his place in the carriage, and for a long time, darkly scowling, wrapped his woolly plaid around his thin and chilly legs.
"Besides formal divorce," he said to himself, as, growing a little calmer, he continued his deliberations, "it would be possible to act as Karibanof, Paskudin, and that gentle Dramm have done; that is to say, I could separate from my wife." But this measure had almost the same disadvantages as the other: it was practically to throw his wife into Vronsky's arms.
"No; it is impossible—impossible," he said aloud, again trying to wrap himself up in his plaid. "I cannot be unhappy, but neither she nor he ought to be happy."
The feeling of jealousy which had tormented him while he was still ignorant had passed away when by his wife's words the aching tooth had been pulled; but this feeling was replaced by a different one,—the desire not only that she should not triumph, but that she should receive the reward for her sin. He did not express it, but in the depths of his soul he desired that she should be punished for the way in which she had destroyed his peace and honor.
After once more passing in review the conditions of the duel, the divorce, and the separation, and once more rejecting them, Alekseï Aleksandrovitch came to the conclusion that there was only one way to escape from his trouble, and that was to keep his wife under his protection, shielding his misfortune from the eyes of the world, employing all possible means to break off the
