The word she cannot say

Whenever Vronsky raises her position, the real Anna withdraws and another woman appears whom he fears and does not like. Told to confess and leave, she performs Karenin's reply — the stress on 'guilty', the warning from the religious, civil and family points of view, the name that cannot be dishonoured — and concludes that he is not a man but a machine, cruel when angry. Run away, then? 'Yes, run away, and for me to live as your mistress.' Twice she reaches for the word 'son' and cannot say it; Vronsky, unable to see why a woman of her honesty endures the deception, does not guess that this is the cause. She makes him promise never to speak of it again, saying she suffers only when he does. When he says he cannot forgive himself for her unhappiness she answers that she is like a hungry man given food — cold, ragged, ashamed, but not unhappy. Serezha's voice approaches; she kisses him and names one o'clock.

An unspeakable word organises the whole scene: Tolstoy shows Anna failing to say 'son' twice and then explains that Vronsky cannot see it. Her mimicry of Karenin is cruel, accurate, and the closest thing to a plan either of them has. The hungry man given food is her defence of the affair, and the terms she chooses — cold, ragged, ashamed — concede the case against it.