"But what's to be done? What's to be done?" he said to himself in despair, and found no answer.

Stepan Arkadyevitch was a truthful man in his relations with himself.

He was incapable of deceiving himself and persuading himself that he repented of his conduct.

He could not at this date repent of the fact that he, a handsome, susceptible man of thirty-four, was not in love with his wife, the mother of five living and two dead children, and only a year younger than himself.

All he repented of was that he had not succeeded better in hiding it from his wife.