#KAY BUT KARENIN WHAT

[crymeariveronceagain]

You didn't want to talk things over with me, he seemed to be saying to her in his mind then so much the worse for you. Now you'll be the one to ask me, but I won't talk things over. So much the worse for you, he said mentally, like a man who after trying in vain to put out a fire is infuriated by his vain exertions and says: "Go on and burn then--- it's your own fault!" This man who was intelligent and subtle in his official duties, failed to understand the utter insanity of such an attitude toward his wife. He did not understand it because he was too afraid of understanding his real position, and in his heart he had closed, locked, and sealed the box in which he kept his feelings towards his family--- that is, his wife and son.

--- Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy.