He frowned.
"What would you have me do ?" he said at last.

"You know I did all a father could for their education, and they have both turned out fools.
Hippolyte is at least a quiet fool, but Anatole is an active one.

That is the only difference between them." He said this smiling in a way more natural and animated than usual, so that the wrinkles round his mouth very clearly revealed something unexpectedly coarse and unpleasant.
"And why are children born to such men as you?
If you were not a father there would be nothing I could reproach you with," said Anna Pavlovna, looking up pensively.
"I am your faithful slave and to you alone I can confess that my children are the bane of my life.

It is the cross I have to bear.

That is how I explain it to myself.