Part 18 (1/2)

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE [smiling] I, in the capacity of Examining Magistrate, am obliged to question you in the capacity of an accused person.

KAReNIN. Indeed! Accused of what?

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Of marrying a woman whose husband was alive.

However, allow me to question you properly. Kindly sit down.

KAReNIN. Thank you.

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Your name?

KAReNIN. Victor Karenin.

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Your calling?

KAReNIN. Chamberlain and Member of Council.

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Age?

KAReNIN. Thirty-eight.

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Religion?

KAReNIN. Orthodox; and I have never before been tried or questioned!

Well?

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Did you know that Theodore Vasilyevich Protasov was alive when you married his wife?

KAReNIN. I did not know it. We were both convinced that he was drowned.

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. After Protasov's alleged death, to whom in Saratov did you send a monthly remittance?

KAReNIN. I do not wish to reply to that question.

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Very well. Why did you send money--1,200 roubles--to Mr. Protasov just before his pretended death on 17th July?

KAReNIN. That money was given to me by my wife ...

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. By Mrs. Protasova?

KAReNIN. ... by my wife, to send to her husband. She considered that money to be his, and having severed all connection with him, considered it unfair to keep it.

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. One more question--why did you withdraw the application for divorce?

KAReNIN. Because Theodore Vasilyevich undertook to apply for a divorce, and wrote me about it.

EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Have you got his letter?

KAReNIN. It has been lost.[27]

[27] Karenin does not produce Fedya's letter because it would have proved connivance in the divorce proceedings.