liaison with this Tushkievitch, deceiving her husband in the most outrageous way .... but she told me that she did not wish to know me, because my position was illegal! Don't think that I compare .... I know yo, dear heart.[1] But I could not help remembering it. Well, what did he say to you?"
"He said that he suffered both for you and for himself; maybe you will say that it is egoism, but what an honorable and noble egoism! He wishes to make his daughter legitimate, and to be your husband and with a husband's rights."
"What wife, what slave, could be more of a slave than I, in my position?" she interrupted angrily.
"The main reason that he wishes it is that you may not suffer."
"This is impossible. Well?"
"Well, to make your children legitimate, to give them a name."
"What children?" said Anna, not looking at Dolly, but half-closing her eyes.
"Ani, and those that may come to you."
"Oh, he can be easy; I shall not have any more."....
"How can you say that you won't have any more?"....
"Because I will not have any more;" and, in spite of her emotion, Anna smiled at the naive expression of astonishment, of curiosity, and horror depicted on Dolly's face. "After my illness the doctor told me...."
******
"It is impossible," exclaimed Dolly, looking at Anna with wide-opened eyes. For her this was one of those discoveries, the consequences and deductions of which are so monstrous that at the first instant it touches only the feeling, that it is impossible to grasp it, but that it rouses momentous trains of thought.
This discovery, which explained for her how happened all these hitherto inexplicable families of one or at most two children, stirred up so many thoughts, considerations, and contradictory feelings that she could
- ↑ Dushenka moya.
