Anna Karenina - Part 1 - Page 41/119

Now his whole soul was full of remorse that he had begun this

conversation with Stepan Arkadyevitch. A feeling such as his was

profaned by talk of the rivalry of some Petersburg officer, of

the suppositions and the counsels of Stepan Arkadyevitch.

Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled. He knew what was passing in Levin's

soul.

"I'll come some day," he said. "But women, my boy, they're the

pivot everything turns upon. Things are in a bad way with me,

very bad. And it's all through women. Tell me frankly now," he

pursued, picking up a cigar and keeping one hand on his glass;

"give me your advice."

"Why, what is it?"

"I'll tell you. Suppose you're married, you love your wife, but

you're fascinated by another woman..."

"Excuse me, but I'm absolutely unable to comprehend how...just as

I can't comprehend how I could now, after my dinner, go straight

to a baker's shop and steal a roll."

Stepan Arkadyevitch's eyes sparkled more than usual.

"Why not? A roll will sometimes smell so good one can't resist

it."

"Himmlisch ist's, wenn ich bezwungen

Meine irdische Begier;

Aber doch wenn's nich gelungen

Hatt' ich auch recht huebsch Plaisir!"

As he said this, Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled subtly. Levin, too,

could not help smiling.

"Yes, but joking apart," resumed Stepan Arkadyevitch, "you must

understand that the woman is a sweet, gentle loving creature,

poor and lonely, and has sacrificed everything. Now, when the

thing's done, don't you see, can one possibly cast her off? Even

supposing one parts from her, so as not to break up one's family

life, still, can one help feeling for her, setting her on her

feet, softening her lot?"

"Well, you must excuse me there. You know to me all women are

divided into two classes...at least no...truer to say: there are

women and there are...I've never seen exquisite fallen beings,

and I never shall see them, but such creatures as that painted

Frenchwoman at the counter with the ringlets are vermin to my

mind, and all fallen women are the same."

"But the Magdalen?"

"Ah, drop that! Christ would never have said those words if He

had known how they would be abused. Of all the Gospel those

words are the only ones remembered. However, I'm not saying so

much what I think, as what I feel. I have a loathing for fallen

women. You're afraid of spiders, and I of these vermin. Most

likely you've not made a study of spiders and don't know their

character; and so it is with me."