(..) I can't bear to be with him. And he doesn't care. He's got what he wants. What he wants is you. He loves you, Dolly. You and the children are everything to him. Are we? And there is room for a governess? That was shameful, disgraceful, but it was not love. It was the animal in man, not the soul. (..)

(..) Be good today. I'm off. Read the chapter carefully. I'll come back to test you on it. Read it twice. Oh, Stiva. Aunt Dolly found a note from the governess. Well? Stiva wants me to come to Moscow to persuade Dolly to forgive him. I'm to be deprived of my wife so that adultery may be forgiven? (..)