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"But what's to be done? What's to be done?" he said to himself in

despair, and found no answer.

Chapter 2

Stepan Arkadyevitch was a truthful man in his relations with

himself. He was incapable of deceiving himself and persuading

himself that he repented of his conduct. He could not at this

date repent of the fact that he, a handsome, susceptible man of

thirty-four, was not in love with his wife, the mother of five

living and two dead children, and only a year younger than

himself. All he repented of was that he had not succeeded better

in hiding it from his wife. But he felt all the difficulty of his

position and was sorry for his wife, his children, and himself.

Possibly he might have managed to conceal his sins better from

his wife if he had anticipated that the knowledge of them would

have had such an effect on her. He had never clearly thought out

the subject, but he had vaguely conceived that his wife must long

ago have suspected him of being unfaithful to her, and shut her

eyes to the fact.