The thought of his wife , who had so greatly sinned against him , and towards whom he had been so saintly , as Countess Lidia Ivanovna had so justly told him , ought not to have troubled him ; but he was not easy ; he could not understand the book he was reading ; he could not drive away harassing recollections of his relations with her , of the mistake which , as it now seemed , he had made in regard to her . The memory of how he had received her confession of infidelity on their way home from the races ( especially that he had insisted only on the observance of external decorum , and had not sent a challenge ) tortured him like a remorse
Мысль о жене, которая так сильно согрешила против него и по отношению к которой он был так свят, как справедливо сказала ему графиня Лидия Ивановна, не должна была смущать его; но он был нелегок; он не мог понять книгу, которую читал; он не мог отогнать мучительных воспоминаний о своих отношениях с ней, об ошибке, которую, как теперь казалось, он совершил по отношению к ней. Воспоминание о том, как он получил ее признание в измене по пути домой со скачек (тем более, что он настоял только на соблюдении внешнего приличия и не послал вызова), мучило его, как угрызения совести.