”

“I am not talking about that, about that...” Alexey Alexandrovitch interrupted with disgust. “But, perhaps, I promised what I had no right to promise.”

“So you go back from your promise?”

“I have never refused to do all that is possible, but I want time to consider how much of what I promised is possible.”

“No, Alexey Alexandrovitch!” cried Oblonsky, jumping up, “I won’t believe that! She’s unhappy as only an unhappy woman can be, and you cannot refuse in such...”

“As much of what I promised as is possible. Vous professez d’etre libre penseur. But I as a believer cannot, in a matter of such gravity, act in opposition to the Christian law.”