‘Yes, but he writes: “Unable to obtain anything yet. Decisive answer promised in a day or two.” Read here.’
With trembling hands Anna took the telegram and read the same thing Vronsky had said. At the end there was also added: ‘Little hope, but will do everything possible and impossible.’
‘I said yesterday that I’m totally indifferent to when I get the divorce, or even whether I get it at all,’ she said, flushing. ‘There was no need to hide it from me.’ And she thought, ‘In the same way he can and does conceal his correspondence with women from me.’
‘And Yashvin wanted to come this morning with Voitov,’ said Vronsky. ‘It seems he’s won everything from Pevtsov, even more than he can pay - about sixty thousand.’
‘No,’ she said, irritated that by this change of subject he should make it so obvious to her that she was irritated, ‘why do you think this news interests me so much that you even have to conceal it? I said I don’t want to think about it, and I wish you were as little interested in it as I am.’
‘I’m interested because I like clarity,’ he said.
‘Clarity is not in form but in love,’ she said, getting more and more irritated, not by his words but by the tone of calm tranquillity in which he spoke. ‘What do you want that for?’
‘My God,’ he thought, wincing, ‘again about love.’
‘You know what for: for you and for the children to come,’ he said.
‘There won’t be any children.’
‘That’s a great pity,’ he said.
‘You need it for the children, but you don’t think about me?’ she said, completely forgetting or not hearing that he had said
The question about the possibility of having children had long been in dispute and it irritated her. She explained his wish to have children by the fact that he did not value her beauty.
‘Ah, I did say “for you”. For you most of all,’ he repeated, wincing as if from pain, ‘because I’m sure that the greater part of your irritation comes from the uncertainty of your situation.’
‘Yes, now he’s stopped pretending and I can see all his cold hatred of me,’ she thought, not listening to his words, but gazing with horror at the cold and cruel judge who looked out of his eyes, taunting her.
‘That’s not the cause,’ she said, ‘and I do not even understand how the fact that I am completely in your power can be a cause of irritation, as you put it. What is uncertain in my situation? On the contrary.’
‘It’s a great pity you don’t want to understand,’ he interrupted her, stubbornly wishing to express his thought. ‘The uncertainty consists in the fact that to you it seems I’m free.’
‘Concerning that you may be perfectly at ease,’ she said and, turning away, began to drink her coffee.
She raised her cup, holding out her little finger, and brought it to her lips. After taking several sips, she glanced at him and, from the expression on his face, clearly understood that he was disgusted by her hand, and her gesture, and the sound her lips made.
‘I am perfectly indifferent to what your mother thinks and how she wants to get you married,’ she said, setting the cup down with a trembling hand.
‘But we’re not talking about that.’
‘Yes, precisely about that. And believe me, a woman with no heart, whether she’s old or not, your mother or someone else’s, is of no interest to me, and I do not care to know her.’
‘Anna, I beg you not to speak disrespectfully of my mother.’
‘A woman whose heart cannot tell her what makes for the happiness and honour of her son, is a woman with no heart.’
‘I repeat my request: do not speak disrespectfully of my mother, whom I respect,’ he said, raising his voice and looking sternly at her.
She did not reply. Gazing intently at him, at his face, his hands, she remembered in all its details the scene of yesterday’s reconciliation and his passionate caresses. ‘Those caresses, exactly the same as he has lavished, and will lavish, and wants to lavish on other women,’ she thought.
‘You don’t love your mother. It’s all words, words, words!’ she said, looking at him with hatred.
‘In that case, we must...’
‘We must decide, and I have decided,’ she said and was about to leave, but just then Yashvin came into the room. Anna greeted him and stopped.
Why, when there was a storm in her soul and she felt she was standing at a turning point in her life that might have terrible consequences, why at such a moment she should have to pretend in front of a stranger, who would learn everything sooner or later anyway, she did not know; but having instantly calmed the storm within her, she sat down and began talking with the visitor.
‘Well, how are things? Did you get what was owed you?’ she asked Yashvin.
‘Oh, things are all right. It seems I won’t be getting the whole sum, and I have to leave on Wednesday. And when are you leaving?’ said Yashvin, narrowing his eyes and glancing at Vronsky, obviously guessing that a quarrel had taken place.
‘The day after tomorrow, I think,’ said Vronsky.
‘You’ve been intending to for a long time, though.’
