Android Karenina

“What nonsense, what nonsense!” said Vronsky; but he felt that there was no conviction in his voice. He risked a glance at Android Karenina, the real one, standing in the room with them, to see her reaction to what her mistress had just revealed. But something in her eyebank’s expression, in the tilt of her head unit, spoke to her anguish at having been, even in a dream, a source of pain to her beloved mistress.

“But don’t let’s talk of it,” A

But all at once she stopped. The expression of her face instantaneously changed. On her face was a look of soft, solemn, blissful attention. He could not comprehend the meaning of the change. She was listening to the stirring of the new life within her.

CHAPTER 3

ALEXEI ALEXANDROVICH, after meeting Vronsky on his own steps, drove, as he had intended, to the Vox Fourteen. He sat through two acts there, and saw everyone he had wanted to see. On returning home, he carefully scrutinized the hat stand, and noticing that there was not a military overcoat there, he went, as usual, to his own room. But, contrary to his usual habit; he did not go to bed; he walked up and down his study till three o’clock in the morning.

The feeling of furious anger with his wife, who would not observe the proprieties and keep to the one stipulation he had laid on her, not to receive her lover in her own home, gave him no peace.

YOU COULD HAVE SLAIN HIM SO EASILY.

COULD HAVE LEFT HIM IN A SHATTERED HEAP IN THE FRONT HALLWAY.

Alexei tried to argue with the furious anger of the Face. “Such an extreme measure, driven out of personal passion, would gain so little and risk so much.”

YOU ARE TOO TIMID. A SIMPLE BLOW TO THE HEAD…

“No!”

A RAPID CONSTRICTION OF THE WINDPIPE…

“For God’s sake, no!”

This internal dissension-perfectly sensible to Alexei Alexandrovich, who could hear the voice in his head as clearly as that of any other person, but no different to an outside observer than the ravings of a madman-continued into the late hours of the night. She had not complied with his request, and he was bound to punish her and carry out his threat: obtain a divorce and take away his son. He knew all the difficulties co

OR YOU COULD SIMPLY-

“No! That I ca

He did not sleep the whole night, and his fury, growing in a sort of vast, arithmetical progression, reached its highest limits in the morning. He dressed in haste, and as though carrying his cup full of wrath, and fearing to spill any over, fearing to lose with his wrath the energy necessary for the interview with his wife, he went into her room as soon as he heard she was up.

A

His brow was lowering, and his telescopic eye zoomed toward her, sca

“What do you want?” she cried, leaping from the bed.

“Sit down! Sit!” he commanded. Amazed and intimidated, she gazed at him in silence.

“I told you that I would not allow you to receive your lover in this house.”

“I had to see him to…”

She stopped, not finding a reason. Words poured into Alexei Alexandrovich’s mind:

DO IT SAY IT DO IT SAY IT

“I do not enter into the details of why a woman wants to see her lover.”

YOU WASTE WORDS YOU WASTE TIME DO IT SAY IT

“I meant, I only…,” she said, flushing hotly. This coarseness of his angered her, and gave her courage. “Surely you must feel how easy it is for you to insult me?” she said.

“An honest man and an honest woman may be insulted, but to tell a thief he’s a thief is simply la constatation d’un fait.”

“This cruelty is something new I did not know in you.”

“There is much of me you do not know. There are facets of my life, of my being, let alone of the being of this world, this universe, that you ca

His cruelty was overtaking him; with every moment it was overwhelming him, rising up in his blood like a fever. The Face sang out in his mind:

IMPLORE CONTROL INSULT INSIST OVERMASTER

With a physical effort he calmed himself, strove to regain himself, to speak with his own voice and with words chosen from his own mind. “You call it cruelty for a husband to give his wife liberty and the honorable protection of his name, simply on the condition of observing the proprieties: is that cruelty?”

“It’s worse than cruel-it’s base, if you want to know!” A

“No!” he shrieked, in his shrill voice, which pitched a note higher than usual even, and at once she felt what Vronsky had felt in the hallway: her body frozen and then snatched up like a poppet in the hand of a child, tossed in the air and slammed into the ceiling, helpless, pressure squeezing upon her throat, the breath choked out of her. Her husband stared up at her where she flailed in the air, a fish on a hook.

“Base! If you care to use that word, what is base is to forsake husband and child for a lover, while you eat your husband’s bread!”

He stared up at her, his oculus telescoping forward ominously, click by click, and she felt the whole of her body forced flatter against the ceiling. She had to argue her case, make him feel her, her humanity, or this was the end-he would destroy her.

“NO!” HE SHRIEKED, AND ANNA FELT HER BODY SLAMMED INTO THE CEILING, PRESSURE SQUEEZING UPON HER THROAT

“You ca

“I beg of you, Alexei…

“Alexei…”

“Ah!” he shouted finally, and released his mental hold. She fell, landing fortuitously-or had some breath of humanity inside him guided her there?-into her chair.

COWARD COWARD COWARD

A

“You may know that since you have not carried out my wishes in regard to observing outward decorum, I will take measures to put an end to this state of things.”

“Soon, very soon, it will end, anyway,” she said.

“It will end sooner than you and your lover have pla

“Alexei Alexandrovich! I won’t say it’s not generous, but it’s not like a gentleman to strike anyone who’s down.”

“Yes, you only think of yourself! But the sufferings of a man who was your husband have no interest for you. You don’t care that his whole life is ruined, that he is thuff… thuff…”

Alexei Alexandrovich was speaking so quickly that he stammered, and was utterly unable to articulate the word “suffering.”

DONKEY!