Страница 618 из 3800

Why did this thought never occur to me before?" and again he told

himself that it was impossible, that there would be something

unnatural, and as it seemed to him dishonorable, in this

marriage. He recalled her former words and looks and the words

and looks of those who had seen them together. He recalled Anna

Pavlovna's words and looks when she spoke to him about his house,

recalled thousands of such hints from Prince Vasili and others,

and was seized by terror lest he had already, in some way, bound

himself to do something that was evidently wrong and that he

ought not to do. But at the very time he was expressing this

conviction to himself, in another part of his mind her image rose

in all its womanly beauty.

CHAPTER II