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+Project Gutenberg's The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, by Leo Tolstoi
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
+
+Author: Leo Tolstoi
+
+Release Date: March 18, 2006 [EBook #689]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KREUTZER SONATA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Judith Boss and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE KREUTZER SONATA AND OTHER STORIES
+
+By Count Leo Tolstoi
+
+
+Author of "Resurrection," "Life is Worth Living," "Ivan the Fool," Etc.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
+
+KREUTZER SONATA.
+
+IVAN THE FOOL.
+
+A LOST OPPORTUNITY.
+
+POLIKUSHKA
+
+THE CANDLE.
+
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
+
+On comparing with the original Russian some English translations of
+Count Tolstoi's works, published both in this country and in England, I
+concluded that they were far from being accurate. The majority of them
+were retranslations from the French, and I found that the respective
+transitions through which they had passed tended to obliterate many of
+the beauties of the Russian language and of the peculiar characteristics
+of Russian life. A satisfactory translation can be made only by one who
+understands the language and SPIRIT of the Russian people. As Tolstoi's
+writings contain so many idioms it is not an easy task to render them
+into intelligible English, and the one who successfully accomplishes
+this must be a native of Russia, commanding the English and Russian
+languages with equal fluency.
+
+The story of "Ivan the Fool" portrays Tolstoi's communistic ideas,
+involving the abolition of military forces, middlemen, despotism, and
+money. Instead of these he would establish on earth a kingdom in which
+each and every person would become a worker and producer. The author
+describes the various struggles through which three brothers passed,
+beset as they were by devils large and small, until they reached the
+ideal state of existence which he believes to be the only happy one
+attainable in this world.
+
+On reading this little story one is surprised that the Russian censor
+passed it, as it is devoted to a narration of ideas quite at variance
+with the present policy of the government of that country.
+
+"A Lost Opportunity" is a singularly true picture of peasant life, which
+evinces a deep study of the subject on the part of the writer. Tolstoi
+has drawn many of the peculiar customs of the Russian peasant in a
+masterly manner, and I doubt if he has given a more comprehensive
+description of this feature of Russian life in any of his other works.
+In this story also he has presented many traits which are common to
+human nature throughout the world, and this gives an added interest to
+the book. The language is simple and picturesque, and the characters are
+drawn with remarkable fidelity to nature. The moral of this tale points
+out how the hero Ivan might have avoided the terrible consequences of a
+quarrel with his neighbor (which grew out of nothing) if he had lived in
+accordance with the scriptural injunction to forgive his brother's sins
+and seek not for revenge.
+
+The story of "Polikushka" is a very graphic description of the life led
+by a servant of the court household of a certain nobleman, in which the
+author portrays the different conditions and surroundings enjoyed by
+these servants from those of the ordinary or common peasants. It is a
+true and powerful reproduction of an element in Russian life but little
+written about heretofore. Like the other stories of this great writer,
+"Polikushka" has a moral to which we all might profitably give heed. He
+illustrates the awful consequences of intemperance, and concludes that
+only kind treatment can reform the victims of alcohol.
+
+For much valuable assistance in the work of these translations, I am
+deeply indebted to the bright English scholarship of my devoted wife.
+
+
+
+
+THE KREUTZER SONATA.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Travellers left and entered our car at every stopping of the train.
+Three persons, however, remained, bound, like myself, for the farthest
+station: a lady neither young nor pretty, smoking cigarettes, with
+a thin face, a cap on her head, and wearing a semi-masculine outer
+garment; then her companion, a very loquacious gentleman of about forty
+years, with baggage entirely new and arranged in an orderly manner;
+then a gentleman who held himself entirely aloof, short in stature, very
+nervous, of uncertain age, with bright eyes, not pronounced in color,
+but extremely attractive,--eyes that darted with rapidity from one
+object to another.
+
+This gentleman, during almost all the journey thus far, had entered into
+conversation with no fellow-traveller, as if he carefully avoided all
+acquaintance. When spoken to, he answered curtly and decisively, and
+began to look out of the car window obstinately.
+
+Yet it seemed to me that the solitude weighed upon him. He seemed to
+perceive that I understood this, and when our eyes met, as happened
+frequently, since we were sitting almost opposite each other, he turned
+away his head, and avoided conversation with me as much as with the
+others. At nightfall, during a stop at a large station, the gentleman
+with the fine baggage--a lawyer, as I have since learned--got out with
+his companion to drink some tea at the restaurant. During their absence
+several new travellers entered the car, among whom was a tall old man,
+shaven and wrinkled, evidently a merchant, wearing a large heavily-lined
+cloak and a big cap. This merchant sat down opposite the empty seats of
+the lawyer and his companion, and straightway entered into conversation
+with a young man who seemed like an employee in some commercial house,
+and who had likewise just boarded the train. At first the clerk had
+remarked that the seat opposite was occupied, and the old man had
+answered that he should get out at the first station. Thus their
+conversation started.
+
+I was sitting not far from these two travellers, and, as the train was
+not in motion, I could catch bits of their conversation when others were
+not talking.
+
+They talked first of the prices of goods and the condition of business;
+they referred to a person whom they both knew; then they plunged into
+the fair at Nijni Novgorod. The clerk boasted of knowing people who were
+leading a gay life there, but the old man did not allow him to continue,
+and, interrupting him, began to describe the festivities of the previous
+year at Kounavino, in which he had taken part. He was evidently proud
+of these recollections, and, probably thinking that this would detract
+nothing from the gravity which his face and manners expressed, he
+related with pride how, when drunk, he had fired, at Kounavino, such a
+broadside that he could describe it only in the other's ear.
+
+The clerk began to laugh noisily. The old man laughed too, showing two
+long yellow teeth. Their conversation not interesting me, I left the car
+to stretch my legs. At the door I met the lawyer and his lady.
+
+"You have no more time," the lawyer said to me. "The second bell is
+about to ring."
+
+Indeed I had scarcely reached the rear of the train when the bell
+sounded. As I entered the car again, the lawyer was talking with his
+companion in an animated fashion. The merchant, sitting opposite them,
+was taciturn.
+
+"And then she squarely declared to her husband," said the lawyer with a
+smile, as I passed by them, "that she neither could nor would live with
+him, because" . . .
+
+And he continued, but I did not hear the rest of the sentence, my
+attention being distracted by the passing of the conductor and a new
+traveller. When silence was restored, I again heard the lawyer's
+voice. The conversation had passed from a special case to general
+considerations.
+
+"And afterward comes discord, financial difficulties, disputes between
+the two parties, and the couple separate. In the good old days that
+seldom happened. Is it not so?" asked the lawyer of the two merchants,
+evidently trying to drag them into the conversation.
+
+Just then the train started, and the old man, without answering, took
+off his cap, and crossed himself three times while muttering a prayer.
+When he had finished, he clapped his cap far down on his head, and said:
+
+"Yes, sir, that happened in former times also, but not as often. In the
+present day it is bound to happen more frequently. People have become
+too learned."
+
+The lawyer made some reply to the old man, but the train, ever
+increasing its speed, made such a clatter upon the rails that I could
+no longer hear distinctly. As I was interested in what the old man was
+saying, I drew nearer. My neighbor, the nervous gentleman, was evidently
+interested also, and, without changing his seat, he lent an ear.
+
+"But what harm is there in education?" asked the lady, with a smile that
+was scarcely perceptible. "Would it be better to marry as in the old
+days, when the bride and bridegroom did not even see each other before
+marriage?" she continued, answering, as is the habit of our ladies, not
+the words that her interlocutor had spoken, but the words she believed
+he was going to speak. "Women did not know whether they would love or
+would be loved, and they were married to the first comer, and suffered
+all their lives. Then you think it was better so?" she continued,
+evidently addressing the lawyer and myself, and not at all the old man.
+
+"People have become too learned," repeated the last, looking at the lady
+with contempt, and leaving her question unanswered.
+
+"I should be curious to know how you explain the correlation between
+education and conjugal differences," said the lawyer, with a slight
+smile.
+
+The merchant wanted to make some reply, but the lady interrupted him.
+
+"No, those days are past."
+
+The lawyer cut short her words:--
+
+"Let him express his thought."
+
+"Because there is no more fear," replied the old man.
+
+"But how will you marry people who do not love each other? Only
+animals can be coupled at the will of a proprietor. But people have
+inclinations, attachments," the lady hastened to say, casting a glance
+at the lawyer, at me, and even at the clerk, who, standing up
+and leaning his elbow on the back of a seat, was listening to the
+conversation with a smile.
+
+"You are wrong to say that, madam," said the old man. "The animals are
+beasts, but man has received the law."
+
+"But, nevertheless, how is one to live with a man when there is no
+love?" said the lady, evidently excited by the general sympathy and
+attention.
+
+"Formerly no such distinctions were made," said the old man, gravely.
+"Only now have they become a part of our habits. As soon as the least
+thing happens, the wife says: 'I release you. I am going to leave your
+house.' Even among the moujiks this fashion has become acclimated.
+'There,' she says, 'here are your shirts and drawers. I am going off
+with Vanka. His hair is curlier than yours.' Just go talk with them. And
+yet the first rule for the wife should be fear."
+
+The clerk looked at the lawyer, the lady, and myself, evidently
+repressing a smile, and all ready to deride or approve the merchant's
+words, according to the attitude of the others.
+
+"What fear?" said the lady.
+
+"This fear,--the wife must fear her husband; that is what fear."
+
+"Oh, that, my little father, that is ended."
+
+"No, madam, that cannot end. As she, Eve, the woman, was taken from
+man's ribs, so she will remain unto the end of the world," said the old
+man, shaking his head so triumphantly and so severely that the clerk,
+deciding that the victory was on his side, burst into a loud laugh.
+
+"Yes, you men think so," replied the lady, without surrendering, and
+turning toward us. "You have given yourself liberty. As for woman, you
+wish to keep her in the seraglio. To you, everything is permissible. Is
+it not so?"
+
+"Oh, man,--that's another affair."
+
+"Then, according to you, to man everything is permissible?"
+
+"No one gives him this permission; only, if the man behaves badly
+outside, the family is not increased thereby; but the woman, the wife,
+is a fragile vessel," continued the merchant, severely.
+
+His tone of authority evidently subjugated his hearers. Even the lady
+felt crushed, but she did not surrender.
+
+"Yes, but you will admit, I think, that woman is a human being, and has
+feelings like her husband. What should she do if she does not love her
+husband?"
+
+"If she does not love him!" repeated the old man, stormily, and knitting
+his brows; "why, she will be made to love him."
+
+This unexpected argument pleased the clerk, and he uttered a murmur of
+approbation.
+
+"Oh, no, she will not be forced," said the lady. "Where there is no
+love, one cannot be obliged to love in spite of herself."
+
+"And if the wife deceives her husband, what is to be done?" said the
+lawyer.
+
+"That should not happen," said the old man. "He must have his eyes about
+him."
+
+"And if it does happen, all the same? You will admit that it does
+happen?"
+
+"It happens among the upper classes, not among us," answered the old
+man. "And if any husband is found who is such a fool as not to rule his
+wife, he will not have robbed her. But no scandal, nevertheless. Love
+or not, but do not disturb the household. Every husband can govern his
+wife. He has the necessary power. It is only the imbecile who does not
+succeed in doing so."
+
+Everybody was silent. The clerk moved, advanced, and, not wishing to lag
+behind the others in the conversation, began with his eternal smile:
+
+"Yes, in the house of our employer, a scandal has arisen, and it is very
+difficult to view the matter clearly. The wife loved to amuse herself,
+and began to go astray. He is a capable and serious man. First, it was
+with the book-keeper. The husband tried to bring her back to reason
+through kindness. She did not change her conduct. She plunged into all
+sorts of beastliness. She began to steal his money. He beat her, but
+she grew worse and worse. To an unbaptized, to a pagan, to a Jew (saving
+your permission), she went in succession for her caresses. What could
+the employer do? He has dropped her entirely, and now he lives as a
+bachelor. As for her, she is dragging in the depths."
+
+"He is an imbecile," said the old man. "If from the first he had not
+allowed her to go in her own fashion, and had kept a firm hand upon her,
+she would be living honestly, no danger. Liberty must be taken away from
+the beginning. Do not trust yourself to your horse upon the highway. Do
+not trust yourself to your wife at home."
+
+At that moment the conductor passed, asking for the tickets for the next
+station. The old man gave up his.
+
+"Yes, the feminine sex must be dominated in season, else all will
+perish."
+
+"And you yourselves, at Kounavino, did you not lead a gay life with the
+pretty girls?" asked the lawyer with a smile.
+
+"Oh, that's another matter," said the merchant, severely. "Good-by,"
+he added, rising. He wrapped himself in his cloak, lifted his cap, and,
+taking his bag, left the car.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Scarcely had the old man gone when a general conversation began.
+
+"There's a little Old Testament father for you," said the clerk.
+
+"He is a Domostroy,"* said the lady. "What savage ideas about a woman
+and marriage!"
+
+     *The Domostroy is a matrimonial code of the days of Ivan the
+     Terrible.
+
+"Yes, gentlemen," said the lawyer, "we are still a long way from the
+European ideas upon marriage. First, the rights of woman, then free
+marriage, then divorce, as a question not yet solved." . . .
+
+"The main thing, and the thing which such people as he do not
+understand," rejoined the lady, "is that only love consecrates marriage,
+and that the real marriage is that which is consecrated by love."
+
+The clerk listened and smiled, with the air of one accustomed to store
+in his memory all intelligent conversation that he hears, in order to
+make use of it afterwards.
+
+"But what is this love that consecrates marriage?" said, suddenly, the
+voice of the nervous and taciturn gentleman, who, unnoticed by us, had
+approached.
+
+He was standing with his hand on the seat, and evidently agitated. His
+face was red, a vein in his forehead was swollen, and the muscles of his
+cheeks quivered.
+
+"What is this love that consecrates marriage?" he repeated.
+
+"What love?" said the lady. "The ordinary love of husband and wife."
+
+"And how, then, can ordinary love consecrate marriage?" continued the
+nervous gentleman, still excited, and with a displeased air. He seemed
+to wish to say something disagreeable to the lady. She felt it, and
+began to grow agitated.
+
+"How? Why, very simply," said she.
+
+The nervous gentleman seized the word as it left her lips.
+
+"No, not simply."
+
+"Madam says," interceded the lawyer indicating his companion, "that
+marriage should be first the result of an attachment, of a love, if
+you will, and that, when love exists, and in that case only, marriage
+represents something sacred. But every marriage which is not based on
+a natural attachment, on love, has in it nothing that is morally
+obligatory. Is not that the idea that you intended to convey?" he asked
+the lady.
+
+The lady, with a nod of her head, expressed her approval of this
+translation of her thoughts.
+
+"Then," resumed the lawyer, continuing his remarks.
+
+But the nervous gentleman, evidently scarcely able to contain himself,
+without allowing the lawyer to finish, asked:
+
+"Yes, sir. But what are we to understand by this love that alone
+consecrates marriage?"
+
+"Everybody knows what love is," said the lady.
+
+"But I don't know, and I should like to know how you define it."
+
+"How? It is very simple," said the lady.
+
+And she seemed thoughtful, and then said:
+
+"Love . . . love . . . is a preference for one man or one woman to the
+exclusion of all others. . . ."
+
+"A preference for how long? . . . For a month, two days, or half an
+hour?" said the nervous gentleman, with special irritation.
+
+"No, permit me, you evidently are not talking of the same thing."
+
+"Yes, I am talking absolutely of the same thing. Of the preference
+for one man or one woman to the exclusion of all others. But I ask: a
+preference for how long?"
+
+"For how long? For a long time, for a life-time sometimes."
+
+"But that happens only in novels. In life, never. In life this
+preference for one to the exclusion of all others lasts in rare cases
+several years, oftener several months, or even weeks, days,
+hours. . . ."
+
+"Oh, sir. Oh, no, no, permit me," said all three of us at the same time.
+
+The clerk himself uttered a monosyllable of disapproval.
+
+"Yes, I know," he said, shouting louder than all of us; "you are talking
+of what is believed to exist, and I am talking of what is. Every man
+feels what you call love toward each pretty woman he sees, and very
+little toward his wife. That is the origin of the proverb,--and it is
+a true one,--'Another's wife is a white swan, and ours is bitter
+wormwood."'
+
+"Ah, but what you say is terrible! There certainly exists among human
+beings this feeling which is called love, and which lasts, not for
+months and years, but for life."
+
+"No, that does not exist. Even if it should be admitted that Menelaus
+had preferred Helen all his life, Helen would have preferred Paris; and
+so it has been, is, and will be eternally. And it cannot be otherwise,
+just as it cannot happen that, in a load of chick-peas, two peas marked
+with a special sign should fall side by side. Further, this is not only
+an improbability, but it is certain that a feeling of satiety will come
+to Helen or to Menelaus. The whole difference is that to one it comes
+sooner, to the other later. It is only in stupid novels that it is
+written that 'they loved each other all their lives.' And none but
+children can believe it. To talk of loving a man or woman for life is
+like saying that a candle can burn forever."
+
+"But you are talking of physical love. Do you not admit a love based
+upon a conformity of ideals, on a spiritual affinity?"
+
+"Why not? But in that case it is not necessary to procreate together
+(excuse my brutality). The point is that this conformity of ideals is
+not met among old people, but among young and pretty persons," said he,
+and he began to laugh disagreeably.
+
+"Yes, I affirm that love, real love, does not consecrate marriage, as we
+are in the habit of believing, but that, on the contrary, it ruins it."
+
+"Permit me," said the lawyer. "The facts contradict your words. We
+see that marriage exists, that all humanity--at least the larger
+portion--lives conjugally, and that many husbands and wives honestly end
+a long life together."
+
+The nervous gentleman smiled ill-naturedly.
+
+"And what then? You say that marriage is based upon love, and when I
+give voice to a doubt as to the existence of any other love than sensual
+love, you prove to me the existence of love by marriage. But in our day
+marriage is only a violence and falsehood."
+
+"No, pardon me," said the lawyer. "I say only that marriages have
+existed and do exist."
+
+"But how and why do they exist? They have existed, and they do exist,
+for people who have seen, and do see, in marriage something sacramental,
+a sacrament that is binding before God. For such people marriages exist,
+but to us they are only hypocrisy and violence. We feel it, and, to
+clear ourselves, we preach free love; but, really, to preach free love
+is only a call backward to the promiscuity of the sexes (excuse me,
+he said to the lady), the haphazard sin of certain raskolniks. The old
+foundation is shattered; we must build a new one, but we must not preach
+debauchery."
+
+He grew so warm that all became silent, looking at him in astonishment.
+
+"And yet the transition state is terrible. People feel that haphazard
+sin is inadmissible. It is necessary in some way or other to regulate
+the sexual relations; but there exists no other foundation than the old
+one, in which nobody longer believes? People marry in the old fashion,
+without believing in what they do, and the result is falsehood,
+violence. When it is falsehood alone, it is easily endured. The husband
+and wife simply deceive the world by professing to live monogamically.
+If they really are polygamous and polyandrous, it is bad, but
+acceptable. But when, as often happens, the husband and the wife have
+taken upon themselves the obligation to live together all their lives
+(they themselves do not know why), and from the second month have
+already a desire to separate, but continue to live together just the
+same, then comes that infernal existence in which they resort to drink,
+in which they fire revolvers, in which they assassinate each other, in
+which they poison each other."
+
+All were silent, but we felt ill at ease.
+
+"Yes, these critical episodes happen in marital life. For instance,
+there is the Posdnicheff affair," said the lawyer, wishing to stop the
+conversation on this embarrassing and too exciting ground. "Have you
+read how he killed his wife through jealousy?"
+
+The lady said that she had not read it. The nervous gentleman said
+nothing, and changed color.
+
+"I see that you have divined who I am," said he, suddenly, after a
+pause.
+
+"No, I have not had that pleasure."
+
+"It is no great pleasure. I am Posdnicheff."
+
+New silence. He blushed, then turned pale again.
+
+"What matters it, however?" said he. "Excuse me, I do not wish to
+embarrass you."
+
+And he resumed his old seat.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+I resumed mine, also. The lawyer and the lady whispered together. I was
+sitting beside Posdnicheff, and I maintained silence. I desired to talk
+to him, but I did not know how to begin, and thus an hour passed until
+we reached the next station.
+
+There the lawyer and the lady went out, as well as the clerk. We were
+left alone, Posdnicheff and I.
+
+"They say it, and they lie, or they do not understand," said
+Posdnicheff.
+
+"Of what are you talking?"
+
+"Why, still the same thing."
+
+He leaned his elbows upon his knees, and pressed his hands against his
+temples.
+
+"Love, marriage, family,--all lies, lies, lies."
+
+He rose, lowered the lamp-shade, lay down with his elbows on the
+cushion, and closed his eyes. He remained thus for a minute.
+
+"Is it disagreeable to you to remain with me, now that you know who I
+am?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+"You have no desire to sleep?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"Then do you want me to tell you the story of my life?"
+
+Just then the conductor passed. He followed him with an ill-natured
+look, and did not begin until he had gone again. Then during all the
+rest of the story he did not stop once. Even the new travellers as they
+entered did not stop him.
+
+His face, while he was talking, changed several times so completely
+that it bore positively no resemblance to itself as it had appeared just
+before. His eyes, his mouth, his moustache, and even his beard, all were
+new. Each time it was a beautiful and touching physiognomy, and these
+transformations were produced suddenly in the penumbra; and for five
+minutes it was the same face, that could not be compared to that of five
+minutes before. And then, I know not how, it changed again, and became
+unrecognizable.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"Well, I am going then to tell you my life, and my whole frightful
+history,--yes, frightful. And the story itself is more frightful than
+the outcome."
+
+He became silent for a moment, passed his hands over his eyes, and
+began:--
+
+"To be understood clearly, the whole must be told from the beginning. It
+must be told how and why I married, and what I was before my marriage.
+First, I will tell you who I am. The son of a rich gentleman of the
+steppes, an old marshal of the nobility, I was a University pupil, a
+graduate of the law school. I married in my thirtieth year. But before
+talking to you of my marriage, I must tell you how I lived formerly,
+and what ideas I had of conjugal life. I led the life of so many other
+so-called respectable people,--that is, in debauchery. And like the
+majority, while leading the life of a debauche, I was convinced that I
+was a man of irreproachable morality.
+
+"The idea that I had of my morality arose from the fact that in my
+family there was no knowledge of those special debaucheries, so common
+in the surroundings of land-owners, and also from the fact that my
+father and my mother did not deceive each other. In consequence of this,
+I had built from childhood a dream of high and poetical conjugal
+life. My wife was to be perfection itself, our mutual love was to be
+incomparable, the purity of our conjugal life stainless. I thought thus,
+and all the time I marvelled at the nobility of my projects.
+
+"At the same time, I passed ten years of my adult life without hurrying
+toward marriage, and I led what I called the well-regulated and
+reasonable life of a bachelor. I was proud of it before my friends,
+and before all men of my age who abandoned themselves to all sorts of
+special refinements. I was not a seducer, I had no unnatural tastes,
+I did not make debauchery the principal object of my life; but I found
+pleasure within the limits of society's rules, and innocently believed
+myself a profoundly moral being. The women with whom I had relations did
+not belong to me alone, and I asked of them nothing but the pleasure of
+the moment.
+
+"In all this I saw nothing abnormal. On the contrary, from the fact
+that I did not engage my heart, but paid in cash, I supposed that I was
+honest. I avoided those women who, by attaching themselves to me, or
+presenting me with a child, could bind my future. Moreover, perhaps
+there may have been children or attachments; but I so arranged matters
+that I could not become aware of them.
+
+"And living thus, I considered myself a perfectly honest man. I did not
+understand that debauchery does not consist simply in physical
+acts, that no matter what physical ignominy does not yet constitute
+debauchery, and that real debauchery consists in freedom from the moral
+bonds toward a woman with whom one enters into carnal relations, and I
+regarded THIS FREEDOM as a merit. I remember that I once tortured myself
+exceedingly for having forgotten to pay a woman who probably had given
+herself to me through love. I only became tranquil again when, having
+sent her the money, I had thus shown her that I did not consider myself
+as in any way bound to her. Oh, do not shake your head as if you were
+in agreement with me (he cried suddenly with vehemence). I know these
+tricks. All of you, and you especially, if you are not a rare exception,
+have the same ideas that I had then. If you are in agreement with me, it
+is now only. Formerly you did not think so. No more did I; and, if I had
+been told what I have just told you, that which has happened would not
+have happened. However, it is all the same. Excuse me (he continued):
+the truth is that it is frightful, frightful, frightful, this abyss
+of errors and debaucheries in which we live face to face with the real
+question of the rights of woman." . . .
+
+"What do you mean by the 'real' question of the rights of woman?"
+
+"The question of the nature of this special being, organized otherwise
+than man, and how this being and man ought to view the wife. . . ."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+"Yes: for ten years I lived the most revolting existence, while dreaming
+of the noblest love, and even in the name of that love. Yes, I want
+to tell you how I killed my wife, and for that I must tell you how I
+debauched myself. I killed her before I knew her.
+
+"I killed THE wife when I first tasted sensual joys without love, and
+then it was that I killed MY wife. Yes, sir: it is only after having
+suffered, after having tortured myself, that I have come to understand
+the root of things, that I have come to understand my crimes. Thus you
+will see where and how began the drama that has led me to misfortune.
+
+"It is necessary to go back to my sixteenth year, when I was still at
+school, and my elder brother a first-year student. I had not yet known
+women but, like all the unfortunate children of our society, I was
+already no longer innocent. I was tortured, as you were, I am sure, and
+as are tortured ninety-nine one-hundredths of our boys. I lived in a
+frightful dread, I prayed to God, and I prostrated myself.
+
+"I was already perverted in imagination, but the last steps remained to
+be taken. I could still escape, when a friend of my brother, a very
+gay student, one of those who are called good fellows,--that is, the
+greatest of scamps,--and who had taught us to drink and play cards, took
+advantage of a night of intoxication to drag us THERE. We started.
+My brother, as innocent as I, fell that night, and I, a mere lad of
+sixteen, polluted myself and helped to pollute a sister-woman, without
+understanding what I did. Never had I heard from my elders that what I
+thus did was bad. It is true that there are the ten commandments of
+the Bible; but the commandments are made only to be recited before
+the priests at examinations, and even then are not as exacting as the
+commandments in regard to the use of ut in conditional propositions.
+
+"Thus, from my elders, whose opinion I esteemed, I had never heard
+that this was reprehensible. On the contrary, I had heard people whom
+I respected say that it was good. I had heard that my struggles and my
+sufferings would be appeased after this act. I had heard it and read it.
+I had heard from my elders that it was excellent for the health, and my
+friends have always seemed to believe that it contained I know not what
+merit and valor. So nothing is seen in it but what is praiseworthy.
+As for the danger of disease, it is a foreseen danger. Does not the
+government guard against it? And even science corrupts us."
+
+"How so, science?" I asked.
+
+"Why, the doctors, the pontiffs of science. Who pervert young people
+by laying down such rules of hygiene? Who pervert women by devising and
+teaching them ways by which not to have children?
+
+"Yes: if only a hundredth of the efforts spent in curing diseases were
+spent in curing debauchery, disease would long ago have ceased to exist,
+whereas now all efforts are employed, not in extirpating debauchery,
+but in favoring it, by assuring the harmlessness of the consequences.
+Besides, it is not a question of that. It is a question of this
+frightful thing that has happened to me, as it happens to nine-tenths,
+if not more, not only of the men of our society, but of all societies,
+even peasants,--this frightful thing that I had fallen, and not because
+I was subjected to the natural seduction of a certain woman. No, no
+woman seduced me. I fell because the surroundings in which I found
+myself saw in this degrading thing only a legitimate function, useful
+to the health; because others saw in it simply a natural amusement, not
+only excusable, but even innocent in a young man. I did not understand
+that it was a fall, and I began to give myself to those pleasures
+(partly from desire and partly from necessity) which I was led to
+believe were characteristic of my age, just as I had begun to drink and
+smoke.
+
+"And yet there was in this first fall something peculiar and touching. I
+remember that straightway I was filled with such a profound sadness that
+I had a desire to weep, to weep over the loss forever of my relations
+with woman. Yes, my relations with woman were lost forever. Pure
+relations with women, from that time forward, I could no longer have.
+I had become what is called a voluptuary; and to be a voluptuary is a
+physical condition like the condition of a victim of the morphine habit,
+of a drunkard, and of a smoker.
+
+"Just as the victim of the morphine habit, the drunkard, the smoker, is
+no longer a normal man, so the man who has known several women for
+his pleasure is no longer normal? He is abnormal forever. He is a
+voluptuary. Just as the drunkard and the victim of the morphine habit
+may be recognized by their face and manner, so we may recognize a
+voluptuary. He may repress himself and struggle, but nevermore will he
+enjoy simple, pure, and fraternal relations toward woman. By his way of
+glancing at a young woman one may at once recognize a voluptuary; and I
+became a voluptuary, and I have remained one."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+"Yes, so it is; and that went farther and farther with all sorts of
+variations. My God! when I remember all my cowardly acts and bad deeds,
+I am frightened. And I remember that 'me' who, during that period, was
+still the butt of his comrades' ridicule on account of his innocence.
+
+"And when I hear people talk of the gilded youth, of the officers, of
+the Parisians, and all these gentlemen, and myself, living wild lives
+at the age of thirty, and who have on our consciences hundreds of
+crimes toward women, terrible and varied, when we enter a parlor or a
+ball-room, washed, shaven, and perfumed, with very white linen, in dress
+coats or in uniform, as emblems of purity, oh, the disgust! There
+will surely come a time, an epoch, when all these lives and all this
+cowardice will be unveiled!
+
+"So, nevertheless, I lived, until the age of thirty, without abandoning
+for a minute my intention of marrying, and building an elevated conjugal
+life; and with this in view I watched all young girls who might suit me.
+I was buried in rottenness, and at the same time I looked for virgins,
+whose purity was worthy of me! Many of them were rejected: they did not
+seem to me pure enough!
+
+"Finally I found one that I considered on a level with myself. She was
+one of two daughters of a landed proprietor of Penza, formerly very rich
+and since ruined. To tell the truth, without false modesty, they pursued
+me and finally captured me. The mother (the father was away) laid all
+sorts of traps, and one of these, a trip in a boat, decided my future.
+
+"I made up my mind at the end of the aforesaid trip one night, by
+moonlight, on our way home, while I was sitting beside her. I admired
+her slender body, whose charming shape was moulded by a jersey, and her
+curling hair, and I suddenly concluded that THIS WAS SHE. It seemed to
+me on that beautiful evening that she understood all that I thought and
+felt, and I thought and felt the most elevating things.
+
+"Really, it was only the jersey that was so becoming to her, and her
+curly hair, and also the fact that I had spent the day beside her, and
+that I desired a more intimate relation.
+
+"I returned home enthusiastic, and I persuaded myself that she realized
+the highest perfection, and that for that reason she was worthy to be my
+wife, and the next day I made to her a proposal of marriage.
+
+"No, say what you will, we live in such an abyss of falsehood, that,
+unless some event strikes us a blow on the head, as in my case, we
+cannot awaken. What confusion! Out of the thousands of men who marry,
+not only among us, but also among the people, scarcely will you find
+a single one who has not previously married at least ten times. (It is
+true that there now exist, at least so I have heard, pure young people
+who feel and know that this is not a joke, but a serious matter. May God
+come to their aid! But in my time there was not to be found one such in
+a thousand.)
+
+"And all know it, and pretend not to know it. In all the novels are
+described down to the smallest details the feelings of the characters,
+the lakes and brambles around which they walk; but, when it comes to
+describing their GREAT love, not a word is breathed of what HE, the
+interesting character, has previously done, not a word about
+his frequenting of disreputable houses, or his association with
+nursery-maids, cooks, and the wives of others.
+
+"And if anything is said of these things, such IMPROPER novels are not
+allowed in the hands of young girls. All men have the air of believing,
+in presence of maidens, that these corrupt pleasures, in which EVERYBODY
+takes part, do not exist, or exist only to a very small extent. They
+pretend it so carefully that they succeed in convincing themselves of
+it. As for the poor young girls, they believe it quite seriously, just
+as my poor wife believed it.
+
+"I remember that, being already engaged, I showed her my 'memoirs,' from
+which she could learn more or less of my past, and especially my last
+liaison which she might perhaps have discovered through the gossip of
+some third party. It was for this last reason, for that matter, that I
+felt the necessity of communicating these memoirs to her. I can still
+see her fright, her despair, her bewilderment, when she had learned and
+understood it. She was on the point of breaking the engagement. What a
+lucky thing it would have been for both of us!"
+
+Posdnicheff was silent for a moment, and then resumed:--
+
+"After all, no! It is better that things happened as they did, better!"
+he cried. "It was a good thing for me. Besides, it makes no difference.
+I was saying that in these cases it is the poor young girls who are
+deceived. As for the mothers, the mothers especially, informed by their
+husbands, they know all, and, while pretending to believe in the purity
+of the young man, they act as if they did not believe in it.
+
+"They know what bait must be held out to people for themselves and their
+daughters. We men sin through ignorance, and a determination not to
+learn. As for the women, they know very well that the noblest and most
+poetic love, as we call it, depends, not on moral qualities, but on the
+physical intimacy, and also on the manner of doing the hair, and the
+color and shape.
+
+"Ask an experienced coquette, who has undertaken to seduce a man, which
+she would prefer,--to be convicted, in presence of the man whom she is
+engaged in conquering, of falsehood, perversity, cruelty, or to appear
+before him in an ill-fitting dress, or a dress of an unbecoming color.
+She will prefer the first alternative. She knows very well that we
+simply lie when we talk of our elevated sentiments, that we seek only
+the possession of her body, and that because of that we will forgive her
+every sort of baseness, but will not forgive her a costume of an ugly
+shade, without taste or fit.
+
+"And these things she knows by reason, where as the maiden knows them
+only by instinct, like the animal. Hence these abominable jerseys, these
+artificial humps on the back, these bare shoulders, arms, and throats.
+
+"Women, especially those who have passed through the school of marriage,
+know very well that conversations upon elevated subjects are only
+conversations, and that man seeks and desires the body and all that
+ornaments the body. Consequently, they act accordingly? If we reject
+conventional explanations, and view the life of our upper and lower
+classes as it is, with all its shamelessness, it is only a vast
+perversity. You do not share this opinion? Permit me, I am going to
+prove it to you (said he, interrupting me).
+
+"You say that the women of our society live for a different interest
+from that which actuates fallen women. And I say no, and I am going
+to prove it to you. If beings differ from one another according to
+the purpose of their life, according to their INNER LIFE, this will
+necessarily be reflected also in their OUTER LIFE, and their exterior
+will be very different. Well, then, compare the wretched, the despised,
+with the women of the highest society: the same dresses, the same
+fashions, the same perfumeries, the same passion for jewelry, for
+brilliant and very expensive articles, the same amusements, dances,
+music, and songs. The former attract by all possible means; so do the
+latter. No difference, none whatever!
+
+"Yes, and I, too, was captivated by jerseys, bustles, and curly hair."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+"And it was very easy to capture me, since I was brought up under
+artificial conditions, like cucumbers in a hothouse. Our too abundant
+nourishment, together with complete physical idleness, is nothing but
+systematic excitement of the imagination. The men of our society are
+fed and kept like reproductive stallions. It is sufficient to close the
+valve,--that is, for a young man to live a quiet life for some
+time,--to produce as an immediate result a restlessness, which, becoming
+exaggerated by reflection through the prism of our unnatural life,
+provokes the illusion of love.
+
+"All our idyls and marriage, all, are the result for the most part of
+our eating. Does that astonish you? For my part, I am astonished that
+we do not see it. Not far from my estate this spring some moujiks
+were working on a railway embankment. You know what a peasant's food
+is,--bread, kvass,* onions. With this frugal nourishment he lives, he is
+alert, he makes light work in the fields. But on the railway this bill
+of fare becomes cacha and a pound of meat. Only he restores this meat by
+sixteen hours of labor pushing loads weighing twelve hundred pounds.
+
+     *Kvass, a sort of cider.
+
+"And we, who eat two pounds of meat and game, we who absorb all sorts
+of heating drinks and food, how do we expend it? In sensual excesses.
+If the valve is open, all goes well; but close it, as I had closed it
+temporarily before my marriage, and immediately there will result an
+excitement which, deformed by novels, verses, music, by our idle and
+luxurious life, will give a love of the finest water. I, too, fell in
+love, as everybody does, and there were transports, emotions, poesy; but
+really all this passion was prepared by mamma and the dressmakers. If
+there had been no trips in boats, no well-fitted garments, etc., if
+my wife had worn some shapeless blouse, and I had seen her thus at her
+home, I should not have been seduced."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+"And note, also, this falsehood, of which all are guilty; the way in
+which marriages are made. What could there be more natural? The young
+girl is marriageable, she should marry. What simpler, provided the young
+person is not a monster, and men can be found with a desire to marry?
+Well, no, here begins a new hypocrisy.
+
+"Formerly, when the maiden arrived at a favorable age, her marriage was
+arranged by her parents. That was done, that is done still, throughout
+humanity, among the Chinese, the Hindoos, the Mussulmans, and among our
+common people also. Things are so managed in at least ninety-nine per
+cent. of the families of the entire human race.
+
+"Only we riotous livers have imagined that this way was bad, and have
+invented another. And this other,--what is it? It is this. The young
+girls are seated, and the gentlemen walk up and down before them, as in
+a bazaar, and make their choice. The maidens wait and think, but do
+not dare to say: 'Take me, young man, me and not her. Look at these
+shoulders and the rest.' We males walk up and down, and estimate the
+merchandise, and then we discourse upon the rights of woman, upon the
+liberty that she acquires, I know not how, in the theatrical halls."
+
+"But what is to be done?" said I to him. "Shall the woman make the
+advances?"
+
+"I do not know. But, if it is a question of equality, let the equality
+be complete. Though it has been found that to contract marriages through
+the agency of match-makers is humiliating, it is nevertheless a thousand
+times preferable to our system. There the rights and the chances are
+equal; here the woman is a slave, exhibited in the market. But as she
+cannot bend to her condition, or make advances herself, there begins
+that other and more abominable lie which is sometimes called GOING INTO
+SOCIETY, sometimes AMUSING ONE'S SELF, and which is really nothing but
+the hunt for a husband.
+
+"But say to a mother or to her daughter that they are engaged only in a
+hunt for a husband. God! What an offence! Yet they can do nothing else,
+and have nothing else to do; and the terrible feature of it all is to
+see sometimes very young, poor, and innocent maidens haunted solely by
+such ideas. If only, I repeat, it were done frankly; but it is always
+accompanied with lies and babble of this sort:--
+
+"'Ah, the descent of species! How interesting it is!'
+
+"'Oh, Lily is much interested in painting.'
+
+"'Shall you go to the Exposition? How charming it is!'
+
+"'And the troika, and the plays, and the symphony. Ah, how adorable!'
+
+"'My Lise is passionately fond of music.'
+
+"'And you, why do you not share these convictions?'
+
+"And through all this verbiage, all have but one single idea: 'Take me,
+take my Lise. No, me! Only try!"'
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+"Do you know," suddenly continued Posdnicheff, "that this power of women
+from which the world suffers arises solely from what I have just spoken
+of?"
+
+"What do you mean by the power of women?" I said. "Everybody, on the
+contrary, complains that women have not sufficient rights, that they are
+in subjection."
+
+"That's it; that's it exactly," said he, vivaciously. "That is just what
+I mean, and that is the explanation of this extraordinary phenomenon,
+that on the one hand woman is reduced to the lowest degree of
+humiliation and on the other hand she reigns over everything. See the
+Jews: with their power of money, they avenge their subjection, just
+as the women do. 'Ah! you wish us to be only merchants? All right;
+remaining merchants, we will get possession of you,' say the Jews. 'Ah!
+you wish us to be only objects of sensuality? All right; by the aid of
+sensuality we will bend you beneath our yoke,' say the women.
+
+"The absence of the rights of woman does not consist in the fact that
+she has not the right to vote, or the right to sit on the bench, but in
+the fact that in her affectional relations she is not the equal of man,
+she has not the right to abstain, to choose instead of being chosen.
+You say that that would be abnormal. Very well! But then do not let man
+enjoy these rights, while his companion is deprived of them, and finds
+herself obliged to make use of the coquetry by which she governs, so
+that the result is that man chooses 'formally,' whereas really it is
+woman who chooses. As soon as she is in possession of her means, she
+abuses them, and acquires a terrible supremacy."
+
+"But where do you see this exceptional power?"
+
+"Where? Why, everywhere, in everything. Go see the stores in the large
+cities. There are millions there, millions. It is impossible to estimate
+the enormous quantity of labor that is expended there. In nine-tenths
+of these stores is there anything whatever for the use of men? All the
+luxury of life is demanded and sustained by woman. Count the factories;
+the greater part of them are engaged in making feminine ornaments.
+Millions of men, generations of slaves, die toiling like convicts simply
+to satisfy the whims of our companions.
+
+"Women, like queens, keep nine-tenths of the human race as prisoners of
+war, or as prisoners at hard labor. And all this because they have been
+humiliated, because they have been deprived of rights equal to those
+which men enjoy. They take revenge for our sensuality; they catch us in
+their nets.
+
+"Yes, the whole thing is there. Women have made of themselves such a
+weapon to act upon the senses that a young man, and even an old man,
+cannot remain tranquil in their presence. Watch a popular festival, or
+our receptions or ball-rooms. Woman well knows her influence there. You
+will see it in her triumphant smiles.
+
+"As soon as a young man advances toward a woman, directly he falls under
+the influence of this opium, and loses his head. Long ago I felt ill at
+ease when I saw a woman too well adorned,--whether a woman of the people
+with her red neckerchief and her looped skirt, or a woman of our own
+society in her ball-room dress. But now it simply terrifies me. I see in
+it a danger to men, something contrary to the laws; and I feel a desire
+to call a policeman, to appeal for defence from some quarter, to demand
+that this dangerous object be removed.
+
+"And this is not a joke, by any means. I am convinced, I am sure, that
+the time will come--and perhaps it is not far distant--when the world
+will understand this, and will be astonished that a society could exist
+in which actions as harmful as those which appeal to sensuality by
+adorning the body as our companions do were allowed. As well set traps
+along our public streets, or worse than that."
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+"That, then, was the way in which I was captured. I was in love, as
+it is called; not only did she appear to me a perfect being, but I
+considered myself a white blackbird. It is a commonplace fact that there
+is no one so low in the world that he cannot find some one viler than
+himself, and consequently puff with pride and self-contentment. I was in
+that situation. I did not marry for money. Interest was foreign to the
+affair, unlike the marriages of most of my acquaintances, who married
+either for money or for relations. First, I was rich, she was poor.
+Second, I was especially proud of the fact that, while others married
+with an intention of continuing their polygamic life as bachelors, it
+was my firm intention to live monogamically after my engagement and the
+wedding, and my pride swelled immeasurably.
+
+"Yes, I was a wretch, convinced that I was an angel. The period of
+my engagement did not last long. I cannot remember those days without
+shame. What an abomination!
+
+"It is generally agreed that love is a moral sentiment, a community of
+thought rather than of sense. If that is the case, this community of
+thought ought to find expression in words and conversation. Nothing of
+the sort. It was extremely difficult for us to talk with each other.
+What a toil of Sisyphus was our conversation! Scarcely had we thought of
+something to say, and said it, when we had to resume our silence and try
+to discover new subjects. Literally, we did not know what to say to each
+other. All that we could think of concerning the life that was before us
+and our home was said.
+
+"And then what? If we had been animals, we should have known that we had
+not to talk. But here, on the contrary, it was necessary to talk, and
+there were no resources! For that which occupied our minds was not a
+thing to be expressed in words.
+
+"And then that silly custom of eating bon-bons, that brutal gluttony
+for sweetmeats, those abominable preparations for the wedding, those
+discussions with mamma upon the apartments, upon the sleeping-rooms,
+upon the bedding, upon the morning-gowns, upon the wrappers, the linen,
+the costumes! Understand that if people married according to the old
+fashion, as this old man said just now, then these eiderdown coverlets
+and this bedding would all be sacred details; but with us, out of ten
+married people there is scarcely to be found one who, I do not say
+believes in sacraments (whether he believes or not is a matter of
+indifference to us), but believes in what he promises. Out of a hundred
+men, there is scarcely one who has not married before, and out of fifty
+scarcely one who has not made up his mind to deceive his wife.
+
+"The great majority look upon this journey to the church as a condition
+necessary to the possession of a certain woman. Think then of the
+supreme significance which material details must take on. Is it not a
+sort of sale, in which a maiden is given over to a debauche, the sale
+being surrounded with the most agreeable details?"
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+"All marry in this way. And I did like the rest. If the young people who
+dream of the honeymoon only knew what a disillusion it is, and always a
+disillusion! I really do not know why all think it necessary to conceal
+it.
+
+"One day I was walking among the shows in Paris, when, attracted by a
+sign, I entered an establishment to see a bearded woman and a water-dog.
+The woman was a man in disguise, and the dog was an ordinary dog,
+covered with a sealskin, and swimming in a bath. It was not in the least
+interesting, but the Barnum accompanied me to the exit very courteously,
+and, in addressing the people who were coming in, made an appeal to my
+testimony. 'Ask the gentleman if it is not worth seeing! Come in, come
+in! It only costs a franc!' And in my confusion I did not dare to answer
+that there was nothing curious to be seen, and it was upon my false
+shame that the Barnum must have counted.
+
+"It must be the same with the persons who have passed through the
+abominations of the honeymoon. They do not dare to undeceive their
+neighbor. And I did the same.
+
+"The felicities of the honeymoon do not exist. On the contrary, it is a
+period of uneasiness, of shame, of pity, and, above all, of ennui,--of
+ferocious ennui. It is something like the feeling of a youth when he is
+beginning to smoke. He desires to vomit; he drivels, and swallows his
+drivel, pretending to enjoy this little amusement. The vice of marriage
+. . ."
+
+"What! Vice?" I said. "But you are talking of one of the most natural
+things."
+
+"Natural!" said he. "Natural! No, I consider on the contrary that it
+is against nature, and it is I, a perverted man, who have reached this
+conviction. What would it be, then, if I had not known corruption? To
+a young girl, to every unperverted young girl, it is an act extremely
+unnatural, just as it is to children. My sister married, when very
+young, a man twice her own age, and who was utterly corrupt. I remember
+how astonished we were the night of her wedding, when, pale and covered
+with tears, she fled from her husband, her whole body trembling, saying
+that for nothing in the world would she tell what he wanted of her.
+
+"You say natural? It is natural to eat; that is a pleasant, agreeable
+function, which no one is ashamed to perform from the time of his birth.
+No, it is not natural. A pure young girl wants one thing,--children.
+Children, yes, not a lover." . . .
+
+"But," said I, with astonishment, "how would the human race continue?"
+
+"But what is the use of its continuing?" he rejoined, vehemently.
+
+"What! What is the use? But then we should not exist."
+
+"And why is it necessary that we should exist?"
+
+"Why, to live, to be sure."
+
+"And why live? The Schopenhauers, the Hartmanns, and all the Buddhists,
+say that the greatest happiness is Nirvana, Non-Life; and they are right
+in this sense,--that human happiness is coincident with the annihilation
+of 'Self.' Only they do not express themselves well. They say that
+Humanity should annihilate itself to avoid its sufferings, that its
+object should be to destroy itself. Now the object of Humanity cannot
+be to avoid sufferings by annihilation, since suffering is the result
+of activity. The object of activity cannot consist in suppressing its
+consequences. The object of Man, as of Humanity, is happiness, and, to
+attain it, Humanity has a law which it must carry out. This law consists
+in the union of beings. This union is thwarted by the passions. And
+that is why, if the passions disappear, the union will be accomplished.
+Humanity then will have carried out the law, and will have no further
+reason to exist."
+
+"And before Humanity carries out the law?"
+
+"In the meantime it will have the sign of the unfulfilled law, and
+the existence of physical love. As long as this love shall exist, and
+because of it, generations will be born, one of which will finally
+fulfil the law. When at last the law shall be fulfilled, the Human Race
+will be annihilated. At least it is impossible for us to conceive of
+Life in the perfect union of people."
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"Strange theory!" cried I.
+
+"Strange in what? According to all the doctrines of the Church, the
+world will have an end. Science teaches the same fatal conclusions.
+Why, then, is it strange that the same thing should result from moral
+Doctrine? 'Let those who can, contain,' said Christ. And I take this
+passage literally, as it is written. That morality may exist between
+people in their worldly relations, they must make complete chastity
+their object. In tending toward this end, man humiliates himself. When
+he shall reach the last degree of humiliation, we shall have moral
+marriage.
+
+"But if man, as in our society, tends only toward physical love, though
+he may clothe it with pretexts and the false forms of marriage, he will
+have only permissible debauchery, he will know only the same immoral
+life in which I fell and caused my wife to fall, a life which we call
+the honest life of the family. Think what a perversion of ideas must
+arise when the happiest situation of man, liberty, chastity, is looked
+upon as something wretched and ridiculous. The highest ideal, the best
+situation of woman, to be pure, to be a vestal, a virgin, excites fear
+and laughter in our society. How many, how many young girls sacrifice
+their purity to this Moloch of opinion by marrying rascals that they
+may not remain virgins,--that is, superiors! Through fear of finding
+themselves in that ideal state, they ruin themselves.
+
+"But I did not understand formerly, I did not understand that the words
+of the Gospel, that 'he who looks upon a woman to lust after her has
+already committed adultery,' do not apply to the wives of others, but
+notably and especially to our own wives. I did not understand this, and
+I thought that the honeymoon and all of my acts during that period
+were virtuous, and that to satisfy one's desires with his wife is an
+eminently chaste thing. Know, then, that I consider these departures,
+these isolations, which young married couples arrange with the
+permission of their parents, as nothing else than a license to engage in
+debauchery.
+
+"I saw, then, in this nothing bad or shameful, and, hoping for great
+joys, I began to live the honeymoon. And very certainly none of these
+joys followed. But I had faith, and was determined to have them,
+cost what they might. But the more I tried to secure them, the less
+I succeeded. All this time I felt anxious, ashamed, and weary. Soon I
+began to suffer. I believe that on the third or fourth day I found my
+wife sad and asked her the reason. I began to embrace her, which in my
+opinion was all that she could desire. She put me away with her hand,
+and began to weep.
+
+"At what? She could not tell me. She was filled with sorrow, with
+anguish. Probably her tortured nerves had suggested to her the truth
+about the baseness of our relations, but she found no words in which to
+say it. I began to question her; she answered that she missed her absent
+mother. It seemed to me that she was not telling the truth. I sought to
+console her by maintaining silence in regard to her parents. I did not
+imagine that she felt herself simply overwhelmed, and that her parents
+had nothing to do with her sorrow. She did not listen to me, and I
+accused her of caprice. I began to laugh at her gently. She dried her
+tears, and began to reproach me, in hard and wounding terms, for my
+selfishness and cruelty.
+
+"I looked at her. Her whole face expressed hatred, and hatred of me. I
+cannot describe to you the fright which this sight gave me. 'How? What?'
+thought I, 'love is the unity of souls, and here she hates me? Me? Why?
+But it is impossible! It is no longer she!'
+
+"I tried to calm her. I came in conflict with an immovable and cold
+hostility, so that, having no time to reflect, I was seized with keen
+irritation. We exchanged disagreeable remarks. The impression of this
+first quarrel was terrible. I say quarrel, but the term is inexact. It
+was the sudden discovery of the abyss that had been dug between us. Love
+was exhausted with the satisfaction of sensuality. We stood face to
+face in our true light, like two egoists trying to procure the greatest
+possible enjoyment, like two individuals trying to mutually exploit each
+other.
+
+"So what I called our quarrel was our actual situation as it appeared
+after the satisfaction of sensual desire. I did not realize that this
+cold hostility was our normal state, and that this first quarrel would
+soon be drowned under a new flood of the intensest sensuality. I thought
+that we had disputed with each other, and had become reconciled, and
+that it would not happen again. But in this same honeymoon there came a
+period of satiety, in which we ceased to be necessary to each other, and
+a new quarrel broke out.
+
+"It became evident that the first was not a matter of chance. 'It was
+inevitable,' I thought. This second quarrel stupefied me the more,
+because it was based on an extremely unjust cause. It was something like
+a question of money,--and never had I haggled on that score; it was even
+impossible that I should do so in relation to her. I only remember that,
+in answer to some remark that I made, she insinuated that it was my
+intention to rule her by means of money, and that it was upon money
+that I based my sole right over her. In short, something extraordinarily
+stupid and base, which was neither in my character nor in hers.
+
+"I was beside myself. I accused her of indelicacy. She made the same
+accusation against me, and the dispute broke out. In her words, in the
+expression of her face, of her eyes, I noticed again the hatred that
+had so astonished me before. With a brother, friends, my father, I had
+occasionally quarrelled, but never had there been between us this fierce
+spite. Some time passed. Our mutual hatred was again concealed beneath
+an access of sensual desire, and I again consoled myself with the
+reflection that these scenes were reparable faults.
+
+"But when they were repeated a third and a fourth time, I understood
+that they were not simply faults, but a fatality that must happen again.
+I was no longer frightened, I was simply astonished that I should be
+precisely the one to live so uncomfortably with my wife, and that the
+same thing did not happen in other households. I did not know that in
+all households the same sudden changes take place, but that all,
+like myself, imagine that it is a misfortune exclusively reserved for
+themselves alone, which they carefully conceal as shameful, not only to
+others, but to themselves, like a bad disease.
+
+"That was what happened to me. Begun in the early days, it continued and
+increased with characteristics of fury that were ever more pronounced.
+At the bottom of my soul, from the first weeks, I felt that I was in a
+trap, that I had what I did not expect, and that marriage is not a joy,
+but a painful trial. Like everybody else, I refused to confess it (I
+should not have confessed it even now but for the outcome). Now I am
+astonished to think that I did not see my real situation. It was so easy
+to perceive it, in view of those quarrels, begun for reasons so trivial
+that afterwards one could not recall them.
+
+"Just as it often happens among gay young people that, in the absence of
+jokes, they laugh at their own laughter, so we found no reasons for our
+hatred, and we hated each other because hatred was naturally boiling
+up in us. More extraordinary still was the absence of causes for
+reconciliation.
+
+"Sometimes words, explanations, or even tears, but sometimes, I
+remember, after insulting words, there tacitly followed embraces and
+declarations. Abomination! Why is it that I did not then perceive this
+baseness?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+"All of us, men and women, are brought up in these aberrations of
+feeling that we call love. I from childhood had prepared myself for this
+thing, and I loved, and I loved during all my youth, and I was joyous in
+loving. It had been put into my head that it was the noblest and highest
+occupation in the world. But when this expected feeling came at last,
+and I, a man, abandoned myself to it, the lie was pierced through and
+through. Theoretically a lofty love is conceivable; practically it is
+an ignoble and degrading thing, which it is equally disgusting to
+talk about and to remember. It is not in vain that nature has made
+ceremonies, but people pretend that the ignoble and the shameful is
+beautiful and lofty.
+
+"I will tell you brutally and briefly what were the first signs of my
+love. I abandoned myself to beastly excesses, not only not ashamed of
+them, but proud of them, giving no thought to the intellectual life of
+my wife. And not only did I not think of her intellectual life, I did
+not even consider her physical life.
+
+"I was astonished at the origin of our hostility, and yet how clear it
+was! This hostility is nothing but a protest of human nature against the
+beast that enslaves it. It could not be otherwise. This hatred was the
+hatred of accomplices in a crime. Was it not a crime that, this poor
+woman having become pregnant in the first month, our liaison should have
+continued just the same?
+
+"You imagine that I am wandering from my story. Not at all. I am always
+giving you an account of the events that led to the murder of my wife.
+The imbeciles! They think that I killed my wife on the 5th of October.
+It was long before that that I immolated her, just as they all kill now.
+Understand well that in our society there is an idea shared by all
+that woman procures man pleasure (and vice versa, probably, but I know
+nothing of that, I only know my own case). Wein, Weiber und Gesang. So
+say the poets in their verses: Wine, women, and song!
+
+"If it were only that! Take all the poetry, the painting, the sculpture,
+beginning with Pouschkine's 'Little Feet,' with 'Venus and Phryne,' and
+you will see that woman is only a means of enjoyment. That is what she
+is at Trouba,* at Gratchevka, and in a court ball-room. And think of
+this diabolical trick: if she were a thing without moral value, it might
+be said that woman is a fine morsel; but, in the first place, these
+knights assure us that they adore woman (they adore her and look upon
+her, however, as a means of enjoyment), then all assure us that they
+esteem woman. Some give up their seats to her, pick up her handkerchief;
+others recognize in her a right to fill all offices, participate in
+government, etc., but, in spite of all that, the essential point remains
+the same. She is, she remains, an object of sensual desire, and
+she knows it. It is slavery, for slavery is nothing else than the
+utilization of the labor of some for the enjoyment of others. That
+slavery may not exist people must refuse to enjoy the labor of others,
+and look upon it as a shameful act and as a sin.
+
+     *A suburb of Moscow.
+
+"Actually, this is what happens. They abolish the external form, they
+suppress the formal sales of slaves, and then they imagine and assure
+others that slavery is abolished. They are unwilling to see that it
+still exists, since people, as before, like to profit by the labor of
+others, and think it good and just. This being given, there will always
+be found beings stronger or more cunning than others to profit thereby.
+The same thing happens in the emancipation of woman. At bottom feminine
+servitude consists entirely in her assimilation with a means of
+pleasure. They excite woman, they give her all sorts of rights equal to
+those of men, but they continue to look upon her as an object of sensual
+desire, and thus they bring her up from infancy and in public opinion.
+
+"She is always the humiliated and corrupt serf, and man remains always
+the debauched Master. Yes, to abolish slavery, public opinion must admit
+that it is shameful to exploit one's neighbor, and, to make woman free,
+public opinion must admit that it is shameful to consider woman as an
+instrument of pleasure.
+
+"The emancipation of woman is not to be effected in the public courts or
+in the chamber of deputies, but in the sleeping chamber. Prostitution is
+to be combated, not in the houses of ill-fame, but in the family. They
+free woman in the public courts and in the chamber of deputies, but she
+remains an instrument. Teach her, as she is taught among us, to look
+upon herself as such, and she will always remain an inferior being.
+Either, with the aid of the rascally doctors, she will try to prevent
+conception, and descend, not to the level of an animal, but to the
+level of a thing; or she will be what she is in the great majority of
+cases,--sick, hysterical, wretched, without hope of spiritual progress."
+. . .
+
+"But why that?" I asked.
+
+"Oh! the most astonishing thing is that no one is willing to see this
+thing, evident as it is, which the doctors must understand, but which
+they take good care not to do. Man does not wish to know the law of
+nature,--children. But children are born and become an embarrassment.
+Then man devises means of avoiding this embarrassment. We have not
+yet reached the low level of Europe, nor Paris, nor the 'system of two
+children,' nor Mahomet. We have discovered nothing, because we have
+given it no thought. We feel that there is something bad in the two
+first means; but we wish to preserve the family, and our view of woman
+is still worse.
+
+"With us woman must be at the same time mistress and nurse, and her
+strength is not sufficient. That is why we have hysteria, nervous
+attacks, and, among the peasants, witchcraft. Note that among the young
+girls of the peasantry this state of things does not exist, but only
+among the wives, and the wives who live with their husbands. The reason
+is clear, and this is the cause of the intellectual and moral decline of
+woman, and of her abasement.
+
+"If they would only reflect what a grand work for the wife is the period
+of gestation! In her is forming the being who continues us, and
+this holy work is thwarted and rendered painful . . . by what? It is
+frightful to think of it! And after that they talk of the liberties and
+the rights of woman! It is like the cannibals fattening their prisoners
+in order to devour them, and assuring these unfortunates at the same
+time that their rights and their liberties are guarded!"
+
+All this was new to me, and astonished me very much.
+
+"But if this is so," said I, "it follows that one may love his wife only
+once every two years; and as man" . . .
+
+"And as man has need of her, you are going to say. At least, so the
+priests of science assure us. I would force these priests to fulfil the
+function of these women, who, in their opinion, are necessary to man. I
+wonder what song they would sing then. Assure man that he needs brandy,
+tobacco, opium, and he will believe those poisons necessary. It follows
+that God did not know how to arrange matters properly, since, without
+asking the opinions of the priests, he has combined things as they are.
+Man needs, so they have decided, to satisfy his sensual desire, and here
+this function is disturbed by the birth and the nursing of children.
+
+"What, then, is to be done? Why, apply to the priests; they will arrange
+everything, and they have really discovered a way. When, then, will
+these rascals with their lies be uncrowned! It is high time. We have had
+enough of them. People go mad, and shoot each other with revolvers, and
+always because of that! And how could it be otherwise?
+
+"One would say that the animals know that descent continues their race,
+and that they follow a certain law in regard thereto. Only man does not
+know this, and is unwilling to know it. He cares only to have as much
+sensual enjoyment as possible. The king of nature,--man! In the name of
+his love he kills half the human race. Of woman, who ought to be his aid
+in the movement of humanity toward liberty, he makes, in the name of his
+pleasures, not an aid, but an enemy. Who is it that everywhere puts a
+check upon the progressive movement of humanity? Woman. Why is it so?
+
+"For the reason that I have given, and for that reason only."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+"Yes, much worse than the animal is man when he does not live as a man.
+Thus was I. The horrible part is that I believed, inasmuch as I did not
+allow myself to be seduced by other women that I was leading an
+honest family life, that I was a very mortal being, and that if we had
+quarrels, the fault was in my wife, and in her character.
+
+"But it is evident that the fault was not in her. She was like everybody
+else, like the majority. She was brought up according to the principles
+exacted by the situation of our society,--that is, as all the young
+girls of our wealthy classes, without exception, are brought up, and
+as they cannot fail to be brought up. How many times we hear or read
+of reflections upon the abnormal condition of women, and upon what
+they ought to be. But these are only vain words. The education of women
+results from the real and not imaginary view which the world entertains
+of women's vocation. According to this view, the condition of women
+consists in procuring pleasure and it is to that end that her education
+is directed. From her infancy she is taught only those things that are
+calculated to increase her charm. Every young girl is accustomed to
+think only of that.
+
+"As the serfs were brought up solely to please their masters, so woman
+is brought up to attract men. It cannot be otherwise. But you will say,
+perhaps, that that applies only to young girls who are badly brought up,
+but that there is another education, an education that is serious, in
+the schools, an education in the dead languages, an education in the
+institutions of midwifery, an education in medical courses, and in other
+courses. It is false.
+
+"Every sort of feminine education has for its sole object the attraction
+of men.
+
+"Some attract by music or curly hair, others by science or by civic
+virtue. The object is the same, and cannot be otherwise (since no other
+object exists),--to seduce man in order to possess him. Imagine courses
+of instruction for women and feminine science without men,--that
+is, learned women, and men not KNOWING them as learned. Oh, no! No
+education, no instruction can change woman as long as her highest ideal
+shall be marriage and not virginity, freedom from sensuality. Until
+that time she will remain a serf. One need only imagine, forgetting the
+universality of the case, the conditions in which our young girls are
+brought up, to avoid astonishment at the debauchery of the women of our
+upper classes. It is the opposite that would cause astonishment.
+
+"Follow my reasoning. From infancy garments, ornaments, cleanliness,
+grace, dances, music, reading of poetry, novels, singing, the theatre,
+the concert, for use within and without, according as women listen, or
+practice themselves. With that, complete physical idleness, an excessive
+care of the body, a vast consumption of sweetmeats; and God knows how
+the poor maidens suffer from their own sensuality, excited by all these
+things. Nine out of ten are tortured intolerably during the first period
+of maturity, and afterward provided they do not marry at the age of
+twenty. That is what we are unwilling to see, but those who have
+eyes see it all the same. And even the majority of these unfortunate
+creatures are so excited by a hidden sensuality (and it is lucky if it
+is hidden) that they are fit for nothing. They become animated only
+in the presence of men. Their whole life is spent in preparations for
+coquetry, or in coquetry itself. In the presence of men they become too
+animated; they begin to live by sensual energy. But the moment the man
+goes away, the life stops.
+
+"And that, not in the presence of a certain man, but in the presence of
+any man, provided he is not utterly hideous. You will say that this is
+an exception. No, it is a rule. Only in some it is made very evident, in
+other less so. But no one lives by her own life; they are all dependent
+upon man. They cannot be otherwise, since to them the attraction of the
+greatest number of men is the ideal of life (young girls and married
+women), and it is for this reason that they have no feeling stronger
+than that of the animal need of every female who tries to attract the
+largest number of males in order to increase the opportunities for
+choice. So it is in the life of young girls, and so it continues
+during marriage. In the life of young girls it is necessary in order to
+selection, and in marriage it is necessary in order to rule the
+husband. Only one thing suppresses or interrupts these tendencies for
+a time,--namely, children,--and then only when the woman is not a
+monster,--that is, when she nurses her own children. Here again the
+doctor interferes.
+
+"With my wife, who desired to nurse her own children, and who did nurse
+six of them, it happened that the first child was sickly. The doctors,
+who cynically undressed her and felt of her everywhere, and whom I had
+to thank and pay for these acts,--these dear doctors decided that she
+ought not to nurse her child, and she was temporarily deprived of
+the only remedy for coquetry. A nurse finished the nursing of this
+first-born,--that is to say, we profited by the poverty and ignorance of
+a woman to steal her from her own little one in favor of ours, and for
+that purpose we dressed her in a kakoschnik trimmed with gold lace.
+Nevertheless, that is not the question; but there was again awakened in
+my wife that coquetry which had been sleeping during the nursing period.
+Thanks to that, she reawakened in me the torments of jealousy which I
+had formerly known, though in a much slighter degree."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+"Yes, jealousy, that is another of the secrets of marriage known to all
+and concealed by all. Besides the general cause of the mutual hatred of
+husbands and wives resulting from complicity in the pollution of a human
+being, and also from other causes, the inexhaustible source of marital
+wounds is jealousy. But by tacit consent it is determined to conceal
+them from all, and we conceal them. Knowing them, each one supposes in
+himself that it is an unfortunate peculiarity, and not a common destiny.
+So it was with me, and it had to be so. There cannot fail to be jealousy
+between husbands and wives who live immorally. If they cannot sacrifice
+their pleasures for the welfare of their child, they conclude therefrom,
+and truly, that they will not sacrifice their pleasures for, I will not
+say happiness and tranquillity (since one may sin in secret), but even
+for the sake of conscience. Each one knows very well that neither admits
+any high moral reasons for not betraying the other, since in their
+mutual relations they fail in the requirements of morality, and from
+that time distrust and watch each other.
+
+"Oh, what a frightful feeling of jealousy! I do not speak of that real
+jealousy which has foundations (it is tormenting, but it promises an
+issue), but of that unconscious jealousy which inevitably accompanies
+every immoral marriage, and which, having no cause, has no end. This
+jealousy is frightful. Frightful, that is the word.
+
+"And this is it. A young man speaks to my wife. He looks at her with a
+smile, and, as it seems to me, he surveys her body. How does he dare to
+think of her, to think of the possibility of a romance with her? And how
+can she, seeing this, tolerate him? Not only does she tolerate him, but
+she seems pleased. I even see that she puts herself to trouble on his
+account. And in my soul there rises such a hatred for her that each of
+her words, each gesture, disgusts me. She notices it, she knows not what
+to do, and how assume an air of indifferent animation? Ah! I suffer!
+That makes her gay, she is content. And my hatred increases tenfold, but
+I do not dare to give it free force, because at the bottom of my soul
+I know that there are no real reasons for it, and I remain in my seat,
+feigning indifference, and exaggerating my attention and courtesy to
+HIM.
+
+"Then I get angry with myself. I desire to leave the room, to leave them
+alone, and I do, in fact, go out; but scarcely am I outside when I am
+invaded by a fear of what is taking place within my absence. I go in
+again, inventing some pretext. Or sometimes I do not go in; I remain
+near the door, and listen. How can she humiliate herself and humiliate
+me by placing me in this cowardly situation of suspicion and espionage?
+Oh, abomination! Oh, the wicked animal! And he too, what does he think
+of you? But he is like all men. He is what I was before my marriage. It
+gives him pleasure. He even smiles when he looks at me, as much as to
+say: 'What have you to do with this? It is my turn now.'
+
+"This feeling is horrible. Its burn is unendurable. To entertain this
+feeling toward any one, to once suspect a man of lusting after my wife,
+was enough to spoil this man forever in my eyes, as if he had been
+sprinkled with vitriol. Let me once become jealous of a being, and
+nevermore could I re-establish with him simple human relations, and my
+eyes flashed when I looked at him.
+
+"As for my wife, so many times had I enveloped her with this moral
+vitriol, with this jealous hatred, that she was degraded thereby. In the
+periods of this causeless hatred I gradually uncrowned her. I covered
+her with shame in my imagination.
+
+"I invented impossible knaveries. I suspected, I am ashamed to say, that
+she, this queen of 'The Thousand and One Nights,' deceived me with my
+serf, under my very eyes, and laughing at me.
+
+"Thus, with each new access of jealousy (I speak always of causeless
+jealousy), I entered into the furrow dug formerly by my filthy
+suspicions, and I continually deepened it. She did the same thing. If
+I have reasons to be jealous, she who knew my past had a thousand times
+more. And she was more ill-natured in her jealousy than I. And the
+sufferings that I felt from her jealousy were different, and likewise
+very painful.
+
+"The situation may be described thus. We are living more or less
+tranquilly. I am even gay and contented. Suddenly we start a
+conversation on some most commonplace subject, and directly she finds
+herself disagreeing with me upon matters concerning which we have been
+generally in accord. And furthermore I see that, without any necessity
+therefor, she is becoming irritated. I think that she has a nervous
+attack, or else that the subject of conversation is really disagreeable
+to her. We talk of something else, and that begins again. Again she
+torments me, and becomes irritated. I am astonished and look for a
+reason. Why? For what? She keeps silence, answers me with monosyllables,
+evidently making allusions to something. I begin to divine that the
+reason of all this is that I have taken a few walks in the garden with
+her cousin, to whom I did not give even a thought. I begin to
+divine, but I cannot say so. If I say so, I confirm her suspicions. I
+interrogate her, I question her. She does not answer, but she sees that
+I understand, and that confirms her suspicions.
+
+"'What is the matter with you?' I ask.
+
+"'Nothing, I am as well as usual,' she answers.
+
+"And at the same time, like a crazy woman, she gives utterance to the
+silliest remarks, to the most inexplicable explosions of spite.
+
+"Sometimes I am patient, but at other times I break out with anger. Then
+her own irritation is launched forth in a flood of insults, in charges
+of imaginary crimes and all carried to the highest degree by sobs,
+tears, and retreats through the house to the most improbable spots. I
+go to look for her. I am ashamed before people, before the children, but
+there is nothing to be done. She is in a condition where I feel that she
+is ready for anything. I run, and finally find her. Nights of torture
+follow, in which both of us, with exhausted nerves, appease each other,
+after the most cruel words and accusations.
+
+"Yes, jealousy, causeless jealousy, is the condition of our debauched
+conjugal life. And throughout my marriage never did I cease to feel it
+and to suffer from it. There were two periods in which I suffered most
+intensely. The first time was after the birth of our first child,
+when the doctors had forbidden my wife to nurse it. I was particularly
+jealous, in the first place, because my wife felt that restlessness
+peculiar to animal matter when the regular course of life is interrupted
+without occasion. But especially was I jealous because, having seen
+with what facility she had thrown off her moral duties as a mother, I
+concluded rightly, though unconsciously, that she would throw off as
+easily her conjugal duties, feeling all the surer of this because she
+was in perfect health, as was shown by the fact that, in spite of the
+prohibition of the dear doctors, she nursed her following children, and
+even very well."
+
+"I see that you have no love for the doctors," said I, having noticed
+Posdnicheff's extraordinarily spiteful expression of face and tone of
+voice whenever he spoke of them.
+
+"It is not a question of loving them or of not loving them. They have
+ruined my life, as they have ruined the lives of thousands of beings
+before me, and I cannot help connecting the consequence with the cause.
+I conceive that they desire, like the lawyers and the rest, to make
+money. I would willingly have given them half of my income--and any one
+would have done it in my place, understanding what they do--if they had
+consented not to meddle in my conjugal life, and to keep themselves at a
+distance. I have compiled no statistics, but I know scores of cases--in
+reality, they are innumerable--where they have killed, now a child in
+its mother's womb, asserting positively that the mother could not give
+birth to it (when the mother could give birth to it very well), now
+mothers, under the pretext of a so-called operation. No one has counted
+these murders, just as no one counted the murders of the Inquisition,
+because it was supposed that they were committed for the benefit of
+humanity. Innumerable are the crimes of the doctors! But all these
+crimes are nothing compared with the materialistic demoralization which
+they introduce into the world through women. I say nothing of the fact
+that, if it were to follow their advice,--thanks to the microbe which
+they see everywhere,--humanity, instead of tending to union, would
+proceed straight to complete disunion. Everybody, according to their
+doctrine, should isolate himself, and never remove from his mouth a
+syringe filled with phenic acid (moreover, they have found out now that
+it does no good). But I would pass over all these things. The supreme
+poison is the perversion of people, especially of women. One can no
+longer say now: 'You live badly, live better.' One can no longer say
+it either to himself or to others, for, if you live badly (say the
+doctors), the cause is in the nervous system or in something similar,
+and it is necessary to go to consult them, and they will prescribe
+for you thirty-five copecks' worth of remedies to be bought at the
+drug-store, and you must swallow them. Your condition grows worse? Again
+to the doctors, and more remedies! An excellent business!
+
+"But to return to our subject. I was saying that my wife nursed her
+children well, that the nursing and the gestation of the children, and
+the children in general, quieted my tortures of jealousy, but that, on
+the other hand, they provoked torments of a different sort."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+"The children came rapidly, one after another, and there happened
+what happens in our society with children and doctors. Yes, children,
+maternal love, it is a painful thing. Children, to a woman of our
+society, are not a joy, a pride, nor a fulfilment of her vocation, but
+a cause of fear, anxiety, and interminable suffering, torture. Women say
+it, they think it, and they feel it too. Children to them are really a
+torture, not because they do not wish to give birth to them, nurse them,
+and care for them (women with a strong maternal instinct--and such was
+my wife--are ready to do that), but because the children may fall sick
+and die. They do not wish to give birth to them, and then not love them;
+and when they love, they do not wish to feel fear for the child's health
+and life. That is why they do not wish to nurse them. 'If I nurse it,'
+they say, 'I shall become too fond of it.' One would think that they
+preferred india-rubber children, which could neither be sick nor die,
+and could always be repaired. What an entanglement in the brains of
+these poor women! Why such abominations to avoid pregnancy, and to avoid
+the love of the little ones?
+
+"Love, the most joyous condition of the soul, is represented as a
+danger. And why? Because, when a man does not live as a man, he is
+worse than a beast. A woman cannot look upon a child otherwise than as
+a pleasure. It is true that it is painful to give birth to it, but what
+little hands! . . . Oh, the little hands! Oh, the little feet! Oh, its
+smile! Oh, its little body! Oh, its prattle! Oh, its hiccough! In a
+word, it is a feeling of animal, sensual maternity. But as for any idea
+as to the mysterious significance of the appearance of a new human being
+to replace us, there is scarcely a sign of it.
+
+"Nothing of it appears in all that is said and done. No one has any
+faith now in a baptism of the child, and yet that was nothing but a
+reminder of the human significance of the newborn babe.
+
+"They have rejected all that, but they have not replaced it, and there
+remain only the dresses, the laces, the little hands, the little
+feet, and whatever exists in the animal. But the animal has neither
+imagination, nor foresight, nor reason, nor a doctor.
+
+"No! not even a doctor! The chicken droops its head, overwhelmed, or the
+calf dies; the hen clucks and the cow lows for a time, and then these
+beasts continue to live, forgetting what has happened.
+
+"With us, if the child falls sick, what is to be done, how to care for
+it, what doctor to call, where to go? If it dies, there will be no more
+little hands or little feet, and then what is the use of the sufferings
+endured? The cow does not ask all that, and this is why children are a
+source of misery. The cow has no imagination, and for that reason cannot
+think how it might have saved the child if it had done this or that, and
+its grief, founded in its physical being, lasts but a very short time.
+It is only a condition, and not that sorrow which becomes exaggerated
+to the point of despair, thanks to idleness and satiety. The cow has not
+that reasoning faculty which would enable it to ask the why. Why endure
+all these tortures? What was the use of so much love, if the little
+ones were to die? The cow has no logic which tells it to have no more
+children, and, if any come accidentally, to neither love nor nurse them,
+that it may not suffer. But our wives reason, and reason in this way,
+and that is why I said that, when a man does not live as a man, he is
+beneath the animal."
+
+"But then, how is it necessary to act, in your opinion, in order to
+treat children humanly?" I asked.
+
+"How? Why, love them humanly."
+
+"Well, do not mothers love their children?"
+
+"They do not love them humanly, or very seldom do, and that is why they
+do not love them even as dogs. Mark this, a hen, a goose, a wolf, will
+always remain to woman inaccessible ideals of animal love. It is a rare
+thing for a woman to throw herself, at the peril of her life, upon an
+elephant to snatch her child away, whereas a hen or a sparrow will not
+fail to fly at a dog and sacrifice itself utterly for its children.
+Observe this, also. Woman has the power to limit her physical love for
+her children, which an animal cannot do. Does that mean that, because of
+this, woman is inferior to the animal? No. She is superior (and even to
+say superior is unjust, she is not superior, she is different), but she
+has other duties, human duties. She can restrain herself in the matter
+of animal love, and transfer her love to the soul of the child. That is
+what woman's role should be, and that is precisely what we do not see in
+our society. We read of the heroic acts of mothers who sacrifice their
+children in the name of a superior idea, and these things seem to us
+like tales of the ancient world, which do not concern us. And yet I
+believe that, if the mother has not some ideal, in the name of which she
+can sacrifice the animal feeling, and if this force finds no employment,
+she will transfer it to chimerical attempts to physically preserve her
+child, aided in this task by the doctor, and she will suffer as she does
+suffer.
+
+"So it was with my wife. Whether there was one child or five, the
+feeling remained the same. In fact, it was a little better when there
+had been five. Life was always poisoned with fear for the children, not
+only from their real or imaginary diseases, but even by their simple
+presence. For my part, at least, throughout my conjugal life, all my
+interests and all my happiness depended upon the health of my children,
+their condition, their studies. Children, it is needless to say, are a
+serious consideration; but all ought to live, and in our days parents
+can no longer live. Regular life does not exist for them. The whole life
+of the family hangs by a hair. What a terrible thing it is to suddenly
+receive the news that little Basile is vomiting, or that Lise has a
+cramp in the stomach! Immediately you abandon everything, you forget
+everything, everything becomes nothing. The essential thing is the
+doctor, the enema, the temperature. You cannot begin a conversation but
+little Pierre comes running in with an anxious air to ask if he may eat
+an apple, or what jacket he shall put on, or else it is the servant who
+enters with a screaming baby.
+
+"Regular, steady family life does not exist. Where you live, and
+consequently what you do, depends upon the health of the little ones,
+the health of the little ones depends upon nobody, and, thanks to the
+doctors, who pretend to aid health, your entire life is disturbed. It is
+a perpetual peril. Scarcely do we believe ourselves out of it when a new
+danger comes: more attempts to save. Always the situation of sailors
+on a foundering vessel. Sometimes it seemed to me that this was done on
+purpose, that my wife feigned anxiety in order to conquer me, since that
+solved the question so simply for her benefit. It seemed to me that all
+that she did at those times was done for its effect upon me, but now I
+see that she herself, my wife, suffered and was tortured on account of
+the little ones, their health, and their diseases.
+
+"A torture to both of us, but to her the children were also a means of
+forgetting herself, like an intoxication. I often noticed, when she was
+very sad, that she was relieved, when a child fell sick, at being able
+to take refuge in this intoxication. It was involuntary intoxication,
+because as yet there was nothing else. On every side we heard that Mrs.
+So-and-so had lost children, that Dr. So-and-so had saved the child
+of Mrs. So-and-so, and that in a certain family all had moved from the
+house in which they were living, and thereby saved the little ones. And
+the doctors, with a serious air, confirmed this, sustaining my wife in
+her opinions. She was not prone to fear, but the doctor dropped some
+word, like corruption of the blood, scarlatina, or else--heaven help
+us--diphtheria, and off she went.
+
+"It was impossible for it to be otherwise. Women in the old days had the
+belief that 'God has given, God has taken away,' that the soul of the
+little angel is going to heaven, and that it is better to die innocent
+than to die in sin. If the women of to-day had something like this
+faith, they could endure more peacefully the sickness of their children.
+But of all that there does not remain even a trace. And yet it is
+necessary to believe in something; consequently they stupidly believe in
+medicine, and not even in medicine, but in the doctor. One believes in
+X, another in Z, and, like all believers, they do not see the idiocy of
+their beliefs. They believe quia absurdum, because, in reality, if they
+did not believe in a stupid way, they would see the vanity of all that
+these brigands prescribe for them. Scarlatina is a contagious disease;
+so, when one lives in a large city, half the family has to move away
+from its residence (we did it twice), and yet every man in the city is a
+centre through which pass innumerable diameters, carrying threads of all
+sorts of contagions. There is no obstacle: the baker, the tailor, the
+coachman, the laundresses.
+
+"And I would undertake, for every man who moves on account of contagion,
+to find in his new dwelling-place another contagion similar, if not the
+same.
+
+"But that is not all. Every one knows rich people who, after a case of
+diphtheria, destroy everything in their residences, and then fall sick
+in houses newly built and furnished. Every one knows, likewise, numbers
+of men who come in contact with sick people and do not get infected. Our
+anxieties are due to the people who circulate tall stories. One woman
+says that she has an excellent doctor. 'Pardon me,' answers the other,
+'he killed such a one,' or such a one. And vice versa. Bring her
+another, who knows no more, who learned from the same books, who treats
+according to the same formulas, but who goes about in a carriage, and
+asks a hundred roubles a visit, and she will have faith in him.
+
+"It all lies in the fact that our women are savages. They have no belief
+in God, but some of them believe in the evil eye, and the others in
+doctors who charge high fees. If they had faith they would know that
+scarlatina, diphtheria, etc., are not so terrible, since they cannot
+disturb that which man can and should love,--the soul. There can result
+from them only that which none of us can avoid,--disease and death.
+Without faith in God, they love only physically, and all their energy is
+concentrated upon the preservation of life, which cannot be preserved,
+and which the doctors promise the fools of both sexes to save. And from
+that time there is nothing to be done; the doctors must be summoned.
+
+"Thus the presence of the children not only did not improve our
+relations as husband and wife, but, on the contrary, disunited us. The
+children became an additional cause of dispute, and the larger they
+grew, the more they became an instrument of struggle.
+
+"One would have said that we used them as weapons with which to combat
+each other. Each of us had his favorite. I made use of little Basile
+(the eldest), she of Lise. Further, when the children reached an age
+where their characters began to be defined, they became allies, which we
+drew each in his or her own direction. They suffered horribly from this,
+the poor things, but we, in our perpetual hubbub, were not clear-headed
+enough to think of them. The little girl was devoted to me, but the
+eldest boy, who resembled my wife, his favorite, often inspired me with
+dislike."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+"We lived at first in the country, then in the city, and, if the final
+misfortune had not happened, I should have lived thus until my old age
+and should then have believed that I had had a good life,--not too good,
+but, on the other hand, not bad,--an existence such as other people
+lead. I should not have understood the abyss of misfortune and ignoble
+falsehood in which I floundered about, feeling that something was not
+right. I felt, in the first place, that I, a man, who, according to my
+ideas, ought to be the master, wore the petticoats, and that I could not
+get rid of them. The principal cause of my subjection was the children.
+I should have liked to free myself, but I could not. Bringing up the
+children, and resting upon them, my wife ruled. I did not then realize
+that she could not help ruling, especially because, in marrying, she was
+morally superior to me, as every young girl is incomparably superior to
+the man, since she is incomparably purer. Strange thing! The ordinary
+wife in our society is a very commonplace person or worse, selfish,
+gossiping, whimsical, whereas the ordinary young girl, until the age of
+twenty, is a charming being, ready for everything that is beautiful
+and lofty. Why is this so? Evidently because husbands pervert them, and
+lower them to their own level.
+
+"In truth, if boys and girls are born equal, the little girls find
+themselves in a better situation. In the first place, the young girl is
+not subjected to the perverting conditions to which we are subjected.
+She has neither cigarettes, nor wine, nor cards, nor comrades, nor
+public houses, nor public functions. And then the chief thing is that
+she is physically pure, and that is why, in marrying, she is superior
+to her husband. She is superior to man as a young girl, and when she
+becomes a wife in our society, where there is no need to work in order
+to live, she becomes superior, also, by the gravity of the acts of
+generation, birth, and nursing.
+
+"Woman, in bringing a child into the world, and giving it her bosom,
+sees clearly that her affair is more serious than the affair of man, who
+sits in the Zemstvo, in the court. She knows that in these functions the
+main thing is money, and money can be made in different ways, and for
+that very reason money is not inevitably necessary, like nursing a
+child. Consequently woman is necessarily superior to man, and must rule.
+But man, in our society, not only does not recognize this, but, on
+the contrary, always looks upon her from the height of his grandeur,
+despising what she does.
+
+"Thus my wife despised me for my work at the Zemstvo, because she gave
+birth to children and nursed them. I, in turn, thought that woman's
+labor was most contemptible, which one might and should laugh at.
+
+"Apart from the other motives, we were also separated by a mutual
+contempt. Our relations grew ever more hostile, and we arrived at that
+period when, not only did dissent provoke hostility, but hostility
+provoked dissent. Whatever she might say, I was sure in advance to hold
+a contrary opinion; and she the same. Toward the fourth year of
+our marriage it was tacitly decided between us that no intellectual
+community was possible, and we made no further attempts at it. As to
+the simplest objects, we each held obstinately to our own opinions. With
+strangers we talked upon the most varied and most intimate matters, but
+not with each other. Sometimes, in listening to my wife talk with others
+in my presence, I said to myself: 'What a woman! Everything that she
+says is a lie!' And I was astonished that the person with whom she was
+conversing did not see that she was lying. When we were together; we
+were condemned to silence, or to conversations which, I am sure, might
+have been carried on by animals.
+
+"'What time is it? It is bed-time. What is there for dinner to-day?
+Where shall we go? What is there in the newspaper? The doctor must be
+sent for, Lise has a sore throat.'
+
+"Unless we kept within the extremely narrow limits of such conversation,
+irritation was sure to ensue. The presence of a third person relieved
+us, for through an intermediary we could still communicate. She probably
+believed that she was always right. As for me, in my own eyes, I was a
+saint beside her.
+
+"The periods of what we call love arrived as often as formerly. They
+were more brutal, without refinement, without ornament; but they were
+short, and generally followed by periods of irritation without cause,
+irritation fed by the most trivial pretexts. We had spats about the
+coffee, the table-cloth, the carriage, games of cards,--trifles, in
+short, which could not be of the least importance to either of us. As
+for me, a terrible execration was continually boiling up within me. I
+watched her pour the tea, swing her foot, lift her spoon to her mouth,
+and blow upon hot liquids or sip them, and I detested her as if these
+had been so many crimes.
+
+"I did not notice that these periods of irritation depended very
+regularly upon the periods of love. Each of the latter was followed
+by one of the former. A period of intense love was followed by a long
+period of anger; a period of mild love induced a mild irritation. We did
+not understand that this love and this hatred were two opposite faces
+of the same animal feeling. To live thus would be terrible, if one
+understood the philosophy of it. But we did not perceive this, we did
+not analyze it. It is at once the torture and the relief of man that,
+when he lives irregularly, he can cherish illusions as to the miseries
+of his situation. So did we. She tried to forget herself in sudden and
+absorbing occupations, in household duties, the care of the furniture,
+her dress and that of her children, in the education of the latter, and
+in looking after their health. These were occupations that did not arise
+from any immediate necessity, but she accomplished them as if her life
+and that of her children depended on whether the pastry was allowed
+to burn, whether a curtain was hanging properly, whether a dress was a
+success, whether a lesson was well learned, or whether a medicine was
+swallowed.
+
+"I saw clearly that to her all this was, more than anything else, a
+means of forgetting, an intoxication, just as hunting, card-playing, and
+my functions at the Zemstvo served the same purpose for me. It is true
+that in addition I had an intoxication literally speaking,--tobacco,
+which I smoked in large quantities, and wine, upon which I did not get
+drunk, but of which I took too much. Vodka before meals, and during
+meals two glasses of wine, so that a perpetual mist concealed the
+turmoil of existence.
+
+"These new theories of hypnotism, of mental maladies, of hysteria are
+not simple stupidities, but dangerous or evil stupidities. Charcot, I
+am sure, would have said that my wife was hysterical, and of me he would
+have said that I was an abnormal being, and he would have wanted to
+treat me. But in us there was nothing requiring treatment. All this
+mental malady was the simple result of the fact that we were living
+immorally. Thanks to this immoral life, we suffered, and, to stifle
+our sufferings, we tried abnormal means, which the doctors call the
+'symptoms' of a mental malady,--hysteria.
+
+"There was no occasion in all this to apply for treatment to Charcot
+or to anybody else. Neither suggestion nor bromide would have been
+effective in working our cure. The needful thing was an examination of
+the origin of the evil. It is as when one is sitting on a nail; if you
+see the nail, you see that which is irregular in your life, and you
+avoid it. Then the pain stops, without any necessity of stifling it. Our
+pain arose from the irregularity of our life, and also my jealousy,
+my irritability, and the necessity of keeping myself in a state of
+perpetual semi-intoxication by hunting, card-playing, and, above all,
+the use of wine and tobacco. It was because of this irregularity that my
+wife so passionately pursued her occupations. The sudden changes of her
+disposition, from extreme sadness to extreme gayety, and her babble,
+arose from the need of forgetting herself, of forgetting her life, in
+the continual intoxication of varied and very brief occupations.
+
+"Thus we lived in a perpetual fog, in which we did not distinguish our
+condition. We were like two galley-slaves fastened to the same ball,
+cursing each other, poisoning each other's existence, and trying to
+shake each other off. I was still unaware that ninety-nine families out
+of every hundred live in the same hell, and that it cannot be otherwise.
+I had not learned this fact from others or from myself. The coincidences
+that are met in regular, and even in irregular life, are surprising. At
+the very period when the life of parents becomes impossible, it becomes
+indispensable that they go to the city to live, in order to educate
+their children. That is what we did."
+
+Posdnicheff became silent, and twice there escaped him, in the
+half-darkness, sighs, which at that moment seemed to me like suppressed
+sobs. Then he continued.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+"So we lived in the city. In the city the wretched feel less sad. One
+can live there a hundred years without being noticed, and be dead a long
+time before anybody will notice it. People have no time to inquire into
+your life. All are absorbed. Business, social relations, art, the health
+of children, their education. And there are visits that must be received
+and made; it is necessary to see this one, it is necessary to hear that
+one or the other one. In the city there are always one, two, or three
+celebrities that it is indispensable that one should visit.
+
+"Now one must care for himself, or care for such or such a little one,
+now it is the professor, the private tutor, the governesses, . . . and
+life is absolutely empty. In this activity we were less conscious of the
+sufferings of our cohabitation. Moreover, in the first of it, we had a
+superb occupation,--the arrangement of the new dwelling, and then, too,
+the moving from the city to the country, and from the country to the
+city.
+
+"Thus we spent a winter. The following winter an incident happened to us
+which passed unnoticed, but which was the fundamental cause of all that
+happened later. My wife was suffering, and the rascals (the doctors)
+would not permit her to conceive a child, and taught her how to avoid
+it. I was profoundly disgusted. I struggled vainly against it, but
+she insisted frivolously and obstinately, and I surrendered. The last
+justification of our life as wretches was thereby suppressed, and life
+became baser than ever.
+
+"The peasant and the workingman need children, and hence their conjugal
+relations have a justification. But we, when we have a few children,
+have no need of any more. They make a superfluous confusion of expenses
+and joint heirs, and are an embarrassment. Consequently we have no
+excuses for our existence as wretches, but we are so deeply degraded
+that we do not see the necessity of a justification. The majority of
+people in contemporary society give themselves up to this debauchery
+without the slightest remorse. We have no conscience left, except, so to
+speak, the conscience of public opinion and of the criminal code. But in
+this matter neither of these consciences is struck. There is not a being
+in society who blushes at it. Each one practices it,--X, Y, Z, etc. What
+is the use of multiplying beggars, and depriving ourselves of the joys
+of social life? There is no necessity of having conscience before the
+criminal code, or of fearing it: low girls, soldiers' wives who throw
+their children into ponds or wells, these certainly must be put
+in prison. But with us the suppression is effected opportunely and
+properly.
+
+"Thus we passed two years more. The method prescribed by the rascals had
+evidently succeeded. My wife had grown stouter and handsomer. It was the
+beauty of the end of summer. She felt it, and paid much attention to her
+person. She had acquired that provoking beauty that stirs men. She was
+in all the brilliancy of the wife of thirty years, who conceives no
+children, eats heartily, and is excited. The very sight of her was
+enough to frighten one. She was like a spirited carriage-horse that has
+long been idle, and suddenly finds itself without a bridle. As for my
+wife, she had no bridle, as for that matter, ninety-nine hundredths of
+our women have none."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Posdnicheff's face had become transformed; his eyes were pitiable; their
+expression seemed strange, like that of another being than himself; his
+moustache and beard turned up toward the top of his face; his nose was
+diminished, and his mouth enlarged, immense, frightful.
+
+"Yes," he resumed "she had grown stouter since ceasing to conceive,
+and her anxieties about her children began to disappear. Not even
+to disappear. One would have said that she was waking from a long
+intoxication, that on coming to herself she had perceived the entire
+universe with its joys, a whole world in which she had not learned to
+live, and which she did not understand.
+
+"'If only this world shall not vanish! When time is past, when old age
+comes, one cannot recover it.' Thus, I believe, she thought, or rather
+felt. Moreover, she could neither think nor feel otherwise. She had been
+brought up in this idea that there is in the world but one thing worthy
+of attention,--love. In marrying, she had known something of this love,
+but very far from everything that she had understood as promised her,
+everything that she expected. How many disillusions! How much suffering!
+And an unexpected torture,--the children! This torture had told upon
+her, and then, thanks to the obliging doctor, she had learned that it
+is possible to avoid having children. That had made her glad. She had
+tried, and she was now revived for the only thing that she knew,--for
+love. But love with a husband polluted by jealousy and ill-nature was no
+longer her ideal. She began to think of some other tenderness; at least,
+that is what I thought. She looked about her as if expecting some event
+or some being. I noticed it, and I could not help being anxious.
+
+"Always, now, it happened that, in talking with me through a third party
+(that is, in talking with others, but with the intention that I should
+hear), she boldly expressed,--not thinking that an hour before she had
+said the opposite,--half joking, half seriously, this idea that maternal
+anxieties are a delusion; that it is not worth while to sacrifice one's
+life to children. When one is young, it is necessary to enjoy life. So
+she occupied herself less with the children, not with the same intensity
+as formerly, and paid more and more attention to herself, to her
+face,--although she concealed it,--to her pleasures, and even to her
+perfection from the worldly point of view. She began to devote herself
+passionately to the piano, which had formerly stood forgotten in the
+corner. There, at the piano, began the adventure.
+
+"The MAN appeared."
+
+Posdnicheff seemed embarrassed, and twice again there escaped him that
+nasal sound of which I spoke above. I thought that it gave him pain to
+refer to the MAN, and to remember him. He made an effort, as if to
+break down the obstacle that embarrassed him, and continued with
+determination.
+
+"He was a bad man in my eyes, and not because he has played such an
+important role in my life, but because he was really such. For the
+rest, from the fact that he was bad, we must conclude that he was
+irresponsible. He was a musician, a violinist. Not a professional
+musician, but half man of the world, half artist. His father, a country
+proprietor, was a neighbor of my father's. The father had become ruined,
+and the children, three boys, were all sent away. Our man, the youngest,
+was sent to his godmother at Paris. There they placed him in the
+Conservatory, for he showed a taste for music. He came out a violinist,
+and played in concerts."
+
+On the point of speaking evil of the other, Posdnicheff checked himself,
+stopped, and said suddenly:
+
+"In truth, I know not how he lived. I only know that that year he came
+to Russia, and came to see me. Moist eyes of almond shape, smiling red
+lips, a little moustache well waxed, hair brushed in the latest fashion,
+a vulgarly pretty face,--what the women call 'not bad,'--feebly built
+physically, but with no deformity; with hips as broad as a woman's;
+correct, and insinuating himself into the familiarity of people as far
+as possible, but having that keen sense that quickly detects a false
+step and retires in reason,--a man, in short, observant of the external
+rules of dignity, with that special Parisianism that is revealed in
+buttoned boots, a gaudy cravat, and that something which foreigners pick
+up in Paris, and which, in its peculiarity and novelty, always has
+an influence on our women. In his manners an external and artificial
+gayety, a way, you know, of referring to everything by hints, by
+unfinished fragments, as if everything that one says you knew already,
+recalled it, and could supply the omissions. Well, he, with his music,
+was the cause of all.
+
+"At the trial the affair was so represented that everything seemed
+attributable to jealousy. It is false,--that is, not quite false, but
+there was something else. The verdict was rendered that I was a deceived
+husband, that I had killed in defence of my sullied honor (that is the
+way they put it in their language), and thus I was acquitted. I tried to
+explain the affair from my own point of view, but they concluded that I
+simply wanted to rehabilitate the memory of my wife. Her relations with
+the musician, whatever they may have been, are now of no importance
+to me or to her. The important part is what I have told you. The whole
+tragedy was due to the fact that this man came into our house at a time
+when an immense abyss had already been dug between us, that frightful
+tension of mutual hatred, in which the slightest motive sufficed to
+precipitate the crisis. Our quarrels in the last days were something
+terrible, and the more astonishing because they were followed by a
+brutal passion extremely strained. If it had not been he, some other
+would have come. If the pretext had not been jealousy, I should have
+discovered another. I insist upon this point,--that all husbands
+who live the married life that I lived must either resort to outside
+debauchery, or separate from their wives, or kill themselves, or kill
+their wives as I did. If there is any one in my case to whom this does
+not happen, he is a very rare exception, for, before ending as I ended,
+I was several times on the point of suicide, and my wife made several
+attempts to poison herself."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+"In order that you may understand me, I must tell you how this happened.
+We were living along, and all seemed well. Suddenly we began to talk
+of the children's education. I do not remember what words either of us
+uttered, but a discussion began, reproaches, leaps from one subject to
+another. 'Yes, I know it. It has been so for a long time.' . . . 'You
+said that.' . . . 'No, I did not say that.' . . . 'Then I lie?' etc.
+
+"And I felt that the frightful crisis was approaching when I should
+desire to kill her or else myself. I knew that it was approaching; I
+was afraid of it as of fire; I wanted to restrain myself. But rage
+took possession of my whole being. My wife found herself in the same
+condition, perhaps worse. She knew that she intentionally distorted each
+of my words, and each of her words was saturated with venom. All that
+was dear to me she disparaged and profaned. The farther the quarrel
+went, the more furious it became. I cried, 'Be silent,' or something
+like that.
+
+"She bounded out of the room and ran toward the children. I tried to hold
+her back to finish my insults. I grasped her by the arm, and hurt her.
+She cried: 'Children, your father is beating me.' I cried: 'Don't lie.'
+She continued to utter falsehoods for the simple purpose of irritating
+me further. 'Ah, it is not the first time,' or something of that sort.
+The children rushed toward her and tried to quiet her. I said: 'Don't
+sham.' She said: 'You look upon everything as a sham. You would kill a
+person and say he was shamming. Now I understand you. That is what you
+want to do.' 'Oh, if you were only dead!' I cried.
+
+"I remember how that terrible phrase frightened me. Never had I thought
+that I could utter words so brutal, so frightful, and I was stupefied at
+what had just escaped my lips. I fled into my private apartment. I sat
+down and began to smoke. I heard her go into the hall and prepare to go
+out. I asked her: 'Where are you going? She did not answer. 'Well, may
+the devil take you!' said I to myself, going back into my private room,
+where I lay down again and began smoking afresh. Thousands of plans of
+vengeance, of ways of getting rid of her, and how to arrange this, and
+act as if nothing had happened,--all this passed through my head. I
+thought of these things, and I smoked, and smoked, and smoked. I thought
+of running away, of making my escape, of going to America. I went so far
+as to dream how beautiful it would be, after getting rid of her, to love
+another woman, entirely different from her. I should be rid of her if
+she should die or if I should get a divorce, and I tried to think how
+that could be managed. I saw that I was getting confused, but, in order
+not to see that I was not thinking rightly, I kept on smoking.
+
+"And the life of the house went on as usual. The children's teacher came
+and asked: 'Where is Madame? When will she return?'
+
+"The servants asked if they should serve the tea. I entered the
+dining-room. The children, Lise, the eldest girl, looked at me with
+fright, as if to question me, and she did not come. The whole evening
+passed, and still she did not come. Two sentiments kept succeeding each
+other in my soul,--hatred of her, since she tortured myself and the
+children by her absence, but would finally return just the same, and
+fear lest she might return and make some attempt upon herself. But where
+should I look for her? At her sister's? It seemed so stupid to go to ask
+where one's wife is. Moreover, may God forbid, I hoped, that she should
+be at her sister's! If she wishes to torment any one, let her torment
+herself first. And suppose she were not at her sister's.
+
+"Suppose she were to do, or had already done, something.
+
+"Eleven o'clock, midnight, one o'clock. . . . I did not sleep. I did not
+go to my chamber. It is stupid to lie stretched out all alone, and to
+wait. But in my study I did not rest. I tried to busy myself, to write
+letters, to read. Impossible! I was alone, tortured, wicked, and
+I listened. Toward daylight I went to sleep. I awoke. She had not
+returned. Everything in the house went on as usual, and all looked at
+me in astonishment, questioningly. The children's eyes were full of
+reproach for me.
+
+"And always the same feeling of anxiety about her, and of hatred because
+of this anxiety.
+
+"Toward eleven o'clock in the morning came her sister, her ambassadress.
+Then began the usual phrases: 'She is in a terrible state. What is
+the matter?' 'Why, nothing has happened.' I spoke of her asperity of
+character, and I added that I had done nothing, and that I would not
+take the first step. If she wants a divorce, so much the better! My
+sister-in-law would not listen to this idea, and went away without
+having gained anything. I was obstinate, and I said boldly and
+determinedly, in talking to her, that I would not take the first
+step. Immediately she had gone I went into the other room, and saw the
+children in a frightened and pitiful state, and there I found myself
+already inclined to take this first step. But I was bound by my word.
+Again I walked up and down, always smoking. At breakfast I drank brandy
+and wine, and I reached the point which I unconsciously desired, the
+point where I no longer saw the stupidity and baseness of my situation.
+
+"Toward three o'clock she came. I thought that she was appeased, or
+admitted her defeat. I began to tell her that I was provoked by her
+reproaches. She answered me, with the same severe and terribly downcast
+face, that she had not come for explanations, but to take the children,
+that we could not live together. I answered that it was not my fault,
+that she had put me beside myself. She looked at me with a severe and
+solemn air, and said: 'Say no more. You will repent it.' I said that I
+could not tolerate comedies. Then she cried out something that I did not
+understand, and rushed toward her room. The key turned in the lock,
+and she shut herself up. I pushed at the door. There was no response.
+Furious, I went away.
+
+"A half hour later Lise came running all in tears. 'What! Has anything
+happened? We cannot hear Mamma!' We went toward my wife's room. I pushed
+the door with all my might. The bolt was scarcely drawn, and the door
+opened. In a skirt, with high boots, my wife lay awkwardly on the bed.
+On the table an empty opium phial. We restored her to life. Tears and
+then reconciliation! Not reconciliation; internally each kept the hatred
+for the other, but it was absolutely necessary for the moment to end
+the scene in some way, and life began again as before. These scenes, and
+even worse, came now once a week, now every month, now every day. And
+invariably the same incidents. Once I was absolutely resolved to fly,
+but through some inconceivable weakness I remained.
+
+"Such were the circumstances in which we were living when the MAN came.
+The man was bad, it is true. But what! No worse than we were."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+"When we moved to Moscow, this gentleman--his name was
+Troukhatchevsky--came to my house. It was in the morning. I received
+him. In former times we had been very familiar. He tried, by various
+advances, to re-establish the familiarity, but I was determined to keep
+him at a distance, and soon he gave it up. He displeased me extremely.
+At the first glance I saw that he was a filthy debauche. I was jealous
+of him, even before he had seen my wife. But, strange thing! some occult
+fatal power kept me from repulsing him and sending him away, and, on
+the contrary, induced me to suffer this approach. What could have been
+simpler than to talk with him a few minutes, and then dismiss him coldly
+without introducing him to my wife? But no, as if on purpose, I turned
+the conversation upon his skill as a violinist, and he answered that,
+contrary to what I had heard, he now played the violin more than
+formerly. He remembered that I used to play. I answered that I had
+abandoned music, but that my wife played very well.
+
+"Singular thing! Why, in the important events of our life, in those in
+which a man's fate is decided,--as mine was decided in that moment,--why
+in these events is there neither a past nor a future? My relations with
+Troukhatchevsky the first day, at the first hour, were such as they
+might still have been after all that has happened. I was conscious that
+some frightful misfortune must result from the presence of this
+man, and, in spite of that, I could not help being amiable to him. I
+introduced him to my wife. She was pleased with him. In the beginning,
+I suppose, because of the pleasure of the violin playing, which she
+adored. She had even hired for that purpose a violinist from the
+theatre. But when she cast a glance at me, she understood my feelings,
+and concealed her impression. Then began the mutual trickery and deceit.
+I smiled agreeably, pretending that all this pleased me extremely. He,
+looking at my wife, as all debauches look at beautiful women, with an
+air of being interested solely in the subject of conversation,--that is,
+in that which did not interest him at all.
+
+"She tried to seem indifferent. But my expression, my jealous or
+false smile, which she knew so well, and the voluptuous glances of the
+musician, evidently excited her. I saw that, after the first interview,
+her eyes were already glittering, glittering strangely, and that, thanks
+to my jealousy, between him and her had been immediately established
+that sort of electric current which is provoked by an identity of
+expression in the smile and in the eyes.
+
+"We talked, at the first interview, of music, of Paris, and of all sorts
+of trivialities. He rose to go. Pressing his hat against his swaying
+hip, he stood erect, looking now at her and now at me, as if waiting to
+see what she would do. I remember that minute, precisely because it was
+in my power not to invite him. I need not have invited him, and then
+nothing would have happened. But I cast a glance first at him, then at
+her. 'Don't flatter yourself that I can be jealous of you,' I thought,
+addressing myself to her mentally, and I invited the other to bring his
+violin that very evening, and to play with my wife. She raised her eyes
+toward me with astonishment, and her face turned purple, as if she were
+seized with a sudden fear. She began to excuse herself, saying that
+she did not play well enough. This refusal only excited me the more. I
+remember the strange feeling with which I looked at his neck, his white
+neck, in contrast with his black hair, separated by a parting, when,
+with his skipping gait, like that of a bird, he left my house. I
+could not help confessing to myself that this man's presence caused me
+suffering. 'It is in my power,' thought I, 'to so arrange things that I
+shall never see him again. But can it be that I, _I_, fear him? No, I do
+not fear him. It would be too humiliating!'
+
+"And there in the hall, knowing that my wife heard me, I insisted that
+he should come that very evening with his violin. He promised me, and
+went away. In the evening he arrived with his violin, and they played
+together. But for a long time things did not go well; we had not the
+necessary music, and that which we had my wife could not play at sight.
+I amused myself with their difficulties. I aided them, I made proposals,
+and they finally executed a few pieces,--songs without words, and a
+little sonata by Mozart. He played in a marvellous manner. He had what
+is called the energetic and tender tone. As for difficulties, there were
+none for him. Scarcely had he begun to play, when his face changed. He
+became serious, and much more sympathetic. He was, it is needless to
+say, much stronger than my wife. He helped her, he advised her simply
+and naturally, and at the same time played his game with courtesy.
+My wife seemed interested only in the music. She was very simple and
+agreeable. Throughout the evening I feigned, not only for the others,
+but for myself, an interest solely in the music. Really, I was
+continually tortured by jealousy. From the first minute that the
+musician's eyes met those of my wife, I saw that he did not regard her
+as a disagreeable woman, with whom on occasion it would be unpleasant to
+enter into intimate relations.
+
+"If I had been pure, I should not have dreamed of what he might think of
+her. But I looked at women, and that is why I understood him and was in
+torture. I was in torture, especially because I was sure that toward
+me she had no other feeling than of perpetual irritation, sometimes
+interrupted by the customary sensuality, and that this man,--thanks to
+his external elegance and his novelty, and, above all, thanks to his
+unquestionably remarkable talent, thanks to the attraction exercised
+under the influence of music, thanks to the impression that music
+produces upon nervous natures,--this man would not only please, but
+would inevitably, and without difficulty, subjugate and conquer her, and
+do with her as he liked.
+
+"I could not help seeing this. I could not help suffering, or keep from
+being jealous. And I was jealous, and I suffered, and in spite of that,
+and perhaps even because of that, an unknown force, in spite of my will,
+impelled me to be not only polite, but more than polite, amiable. I
+cannot say whether I did it for my wife, or to show him that I did not
+fear HIM, or to deceive myself; but from my first relations with him I
+could not be at my ease. I was obliged, that I might not give way to a
+desire to kill him immediately, to 'caress' him. I filled his glass at
+the table, I grew enthusiastic over his playing, I talked to him with
+an extremely amiable smile, and I invited him to dinner the following
+Sunday, and to play again. I told him that I would invite some of my
+acquaintances, lovers of his art, to hear him.
+
+"Two or three days later I was entering my house, in conversation with
+a friend, when in the hall I suddenly felt something as heavy as a stone
+weighing on my heart, and I could not account for it. And it was this,
+it was this: in passing through the hall, I had noticed something which
+reminded me of HIM. Not until I reached my study did I realize what it
+was, and I returned to the hall to verify my conjecture. Yes, I was
+not mistaken. It was his overcoat (everything that belonged to him,
+I, without realizing it, had observed with extraordinary attention). I
+questioned the servant. That was it. He had come.
+
+"I passed near the parlor, through my children's study-room. Lise, my
+daughter, was sitting before a book, and the old nurse, with my youngest
+child, was beside the table, turning the cover of something or other.
+In the parlor I heard a slow arpeggio, and his voice, deadened, and a
+denial from her. She said: 'No, no! There is something else!' And it
+seemed to me that some one was purposely deadening the words by the aid
+of the piano.
+
+"My God! How my heart leaped! What were my imaginations! When I remember
+the beast that lived in me at that moment, I am seized with fright. My
+heart was first compressed, then stopped, and then began to beat like
+a hammer. The principal feeling, as in every bad feeling, was pity for
+myself. 'Before the children, before the old nurse,' thought I, 'she
+dishonors me. I will go away. I can endure it no longer. God knows what
+I should do if. . . . But I must go in.'
+
+"The old nurse raised her eyes to mine, as if she understood, and advised
+me to keep a sharp watch. 'I must go in,' I said to myself, and, without
+knowing what I did, I opened the door. He was sitting at the piano and
+making arpeggios with his long, white, curved fingers. She was standing
+in the angle of the grand piano, before the open score. She saw or
+heard me first, and raised her eyes to mine. Was she stunned, was she
+pretending not to be frightened, or was she really not frightened at
+all? In any case, she did not tremble, she did not stir. She blushed,
+but only a little later.
+
+"'How glad I am that you have come! We have not decided what we will
+play Sunday,' said she, in a tone that she would not have had if she had
+been alone with me.
+
+"This tone, and the way in which she said 'we' in speaking of herself
+and of him, revolted me. I saluted him silently. He shook hands with me
+directly, with a smile that seemed to me full of mockery. He explained
+to me that he had brought some scores, in order to prepare for the
+Sunday concert, and that they were not in accord as to the piece
+to choose,--whether difficult, classic things, notably a sonata by
+Beethoven, or lighter pieces.
+
+"And as he spoke, he looked at me. It was all so natural, so simple, that
+there was absolutely nothing to be said against it. And at the same time
+I saw, I was sure, that it was false, that they were in a conspiracy to
+deceive me.
+
+"One of the most torturing situations for the jealous (and in our social
+life everybody is jealous) are those social conditions which allow
+a very great and dangerous intimacy between a man and a woman under
+certain pretexts. One must make himself the laughing stock of everybody,
+if he desires to prevent associations in the ball-room, the intimacy
+of doctors with their patients, the familiarity of art occupations, and
+especially of music. In order that people may occupy themselves together
+with the noblest art, music, a certain intimacy is necessary, in which
+there is nothing blameworthy. Only a jealous fool of a husband can have
+anything to say against it. A husband should not have such thoughts,
+and especially should not thrust his nose into these affairs, or prevent
+them. And yet, everybody knows that precisely in these occupations,
+especially in music, many adulteries originate in our society.
+
+"I had evidently embarrassed them, because for some time I was unable
+to say anything. I was like a bottle suddenly turned upside down, from
+which the water does not run because it is too full. I wanted to insult
+the man, and to drive him away, but I could do nothing of the kind.
+On the contrary, I felt that I was disturbing them, and that it was my
+fault. I made a presence of approving everything, this time also, thanks
+to that strange feeling that forced me to treat him the more amiably in
+proportion as his presence was more painful to me. I said that I trusted
+to his taste, and I advised my wife to do the same. He remained just as
+long as it was necessary in order to efface the unpleasant impression of
+my abrupt entrance with a frightened face. He went away with an air of
+satisfaction at the conclusions arrived at. As for me, I was perfectly
+sure that, in comparison with that which preoccupied them, the question
+of music was indifferent to them. I accompanied him with especial
+courtesy to the hall (how can one help accompanying a man who has
+come to disturb your tranquillity and ruin the happiness of the entire
+family?), and I shook his white, soft hand with fervent amiability."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+"All that day I did not speak to my wife. I could not. Her proximity
+excited such hatred that I feared myself. At the table she asked me, in
+presence of the children, when I was to start upon a journey. I was to
+go the following week to an assembly of the Zemstvo, in a neighboring
+locality. I named the date. She asked me if I would need anything for
+the journey. I did not answer. I sat silent at the table, and silently
+I retired to my study. In those last days she never entered my study,
+especially at that hour. Suddenly I heard her steps, her walk, and then
+a terribly base idea entered my head that, like the wife of Uri, she
+wished to conceal a fault already committed, and that it was for
+this reason that she came to see me at this unseasonable hour. 'Is it
+possible,' thought I, 'that she is coming to see me?' On hearing her
+step as it approached: 'If it is to see me that she is coming, then I am
+right.'
+
+"An inexpressible hatred invaded my soul. The steps drew nearer, and
+nearer, and nearer yet. Would she pass by and go on to the other room?
+No, the hinges creaked, and at the door her tall, graceful, languid
+figure appeared. In her face, in her eyes, a timidity, an insinuating
+expression, which she tried to hide, but which I saw, and of which I
+understood the meaning. I came near suffocating, such were my efforts to
+hold my breath, and, continuing to look at her, I took my cigarette, and
+lighted it.
+
+"'What does this mean? One comes to talk with you, and you go to
+smoking.'
+
+"And she sat down beside me on the sofa, resting against my shoulder. I
+recoiled, that I might not touch her.
+
+"'I see that you are displeased with what I wish to play on Sunday,'
+said she.
+
+"'I am not at all displeased,' said I.
+
+"'Can I not see?'
+
+"'Well, I congratulate you on your clairvoyance. Only to you every
+baseness is agreeable, and I abhor it.'
+
+"'If you are going to swear like a trooper, I am going away.'
+
+"'Then go away. Only know that, if the honor of the family is nothing to
+you, to me it is dear. As for you, the devil take you!'
+
+"'What! What is the matter?'
+
+"'Go away, in the name of God.'
+
+"But she did not go away. Was she pretending not to understand, or did
+she really not understand what I meant? But she was offended and became
+angry.
+
+"'You have become absolutely impossible,' she began, or some such phrase
+as that regarding my character, trying, as usual, to give me as much
+pain as possible. 'After what you have done to my sister (she referred
+to an incident with her sister, in which, beside myself, I had uttered
+brutalities; she knew that that tortured me, and tried to touch me in
+that tender spot) nothing will astonish me.'
+
+"'Yes, offended, humiliated, and dishonored, and after that to hold
+me still responsible,' thought I, and suddenly a rage, such a hatred
+invaded me as I do not remember to have ever felt before. For the first
+time I desired to express this hatred physically. I leaped upon her, but
+at the same moment I understood my condition, and I asked myself whether
+it would be well for me to abandon myself to my fury. And I answered
+myself that it would be well, that it would frighten her, and, instead
+of resisting, I lashed and spurred myself on, and was glad to feel my
+anger boiling more and more fiercely.
+
+"'Go away, or I will kill you!' I cried, purposely, with a frightful
+voice, and I grasped her by the arm. She did not go away. Then I twisted
+her arm, and pushed her away violently.
+
+"'What is the matter with you? Come to your senses!' she shrieked.
+
+"'Go away,' roared I, louder than ever, rolling my eyes wildly. 'It
+takes you to put me in such a fury. I do not answer for myself! Go
+away!'
+
+"In abandoning myself to my anger, I became steeped in it, and I wanted
+to commit some violent act to show the force of my fury. I felt a
+terrible desire to beat her, to kill her, but I realized that that could
+not be, and I restrained myself. I drew back from her, rushed to the
+table, grasped the paper-weight, and threw it on the floor by her side.
+I took care to aim a little to one side, and, before she disappeared (I
+did it so that she could see it), I grasped a candlestick, which I also
+hurled, and then took down the barometer, continuing to shout:
+
+"'Go away! I do not answer for myself!'
+
+"She disappeared, and I immediately ceased my demonstrations. An hour
+later the old servant came to me and said that my wife was in a fit
+of hysterics. I went to see her. She sobbed and laughed, incapable of
+expressing anything, her whole body in a tremble. She was not shamming,
+she was really sick. We sent for the doctor, and all night long I cared
+for her. Toward daylight she grew calmer, and we became reconciled under
+the influence of that feeling which we called 'love.' The next morning,
+when, after the reconciliation, I confessed to her that I was jealous of
+Troukhatchevsky, she was not at all embarrassed, and began to laugh in
+the most natural way, so strange did the possibility of being led astray
+by such a man appear to her.
+
+"'With such a man can an honest woman entertain any feeling beyond the
+pleasure of enjoying music with him? But if you like, I am ready
+to never see him again, even on Sunday, although everybody has been
+invited. Write him that I am indisposed, and that will end the
+matter. Only one thing annoys me,--that any one could have thought him
+dangerous. I am too proud not to detest such thoughts.'
+
+"And she did not lie. She believed what she said. She hoped by her words
+to provoke in herself a contempt for him, and thereby to defend herself.
+But she did not succeed. Everything was directed against her, especially
+that abominable music. So ended the quarrel, and on Sunday our guests
+came, and Troukhatchevsky and my wife again played together."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+"I think that it is superfluous to say that I was very vain. If one
+has no vanity in this life of ours, there is no sufficient reason for
+living. So for that Sunday I had busied myself in tastefully arranging
+things for the dinner and the musical soiree. I had purchased myself
+numerous things for the dinner, and had chosen the guests. Toward six
+o'clock they arrived, and after them Troukhatchevsky, in his dress-coat,
+with diamond shirt-studs, in bad taste. He bore himself with ease. To
+all questions he responded promptly, with a smile of contentment and
+understanding, and that peculiar expression which was intended to
+mean: 'All that you may do and say will be exactly what I expected.'
+Everything about him that was not correct I now noticed with especial
+pleasure, for it all tended to tranquillize me, and prove to me that to
+my wife he stood in such a degree of inferiority that, as she had
+told me, she could not stoop to his level. Less because of my wife's
+assurances than because of the atrocious sufferings which I felt in
+jealousy, I no longer allowed myself to be jealous.
+
+"In spite of that, I was not at ease with the musician or with her
+during dinner-time and the time that elapsed before the beginning of the
+music. Involuntarily I followed each of their gestures and looks.
+The dinner, like all dinners, was tiresome and conventional. Not long
+afterward the music began. He went to get his violin; my wife advanced
+to the piano, and rummaged among the scores. Oh, how well I remember all
+the details of that evening! I remember how he brought the violin, how
+he opened the box, took off the serge embroidered by a lady's hand, and
+began to tune the instrument. I can still see my wife sit down, with a
+false air of indifference, under which it was plain that she hid a great
+timidity, a timidity that was especially due to her comparative lack
+of musical knowledge. She sat down with that false air in front of the
+piano, and then began the usual preliminaries,--the pizzicati of the
+violin and the arrangement of the scores. I remember then how they
+looked at each other, and cast a glance at their auditors who were
+taking their seats. They said a few words to each other, and the music
+began. They played Beethoven's 'Kreutzer Sonata.' Do you know the first
+presto? Do you know it? Ah!" . . .
+
+Posdnicheff heaved a sigh, and was silent for a long time.
+
+"A terrible thing is that sonata, especially the presto! And a terrible
+thing is music in general. What is it? Why does it do what it does?
+They say that music stirs the soul. Stupidity! A lie! It acts, it acts
+frightfully (I speak for myself), but not in an ennobling way. It acts
+neither in an ennobling nor a debasing way, but in an irritating
+way. How shall I say it? Music makes me forget my real situation. It
+transports me into a state which is not my own. Under the influence of
+music I really seem to feel what I do not feel, to understand what I do
+not understand, to have powers which I cannot have. Music seems to me to
+act like yawning or laughter; I have no desire to sleep, but I yawn when
+I see others yawn; with no reason to laugh, I laugh when I hear others
+laugh. And music transports me immediately into the condition of soul
+in which he who wrote the music found himself at that time. I become
+confounded with his soul, and with him I pass from one condition
+to another. But why that? I know nothing about it? But he who wrote
+Beethoven's 'Kreutzer Sonata' knew well why he found himself in a
+certain condition. That condition led him to certain actions, and for
+that reason to him had a meaning, but to me none, none whatever. And
+that is why music provokes an excitement which it does not bring to a
+conclusion. For instance, a military march is played; the soldier
+passes to the sound of this march, and the music is finished. A dance
+is played; I have finished dancing, and the music is finished. A mass is
+sung; I receive the sacrament, and again the music is finished. But
+any other music provokes an excitement, and this excitement is not
+accompanied by the thing that needs properly to be done, and that is why
+music is so dangerous, and sometimes acts so frightfully.
+
+"In China music is under the control of the State, and that is the way
+it ought to be. Is it admissible that the first comer should hypnotize
+one or more persons, and then do with them as he likes? And especially
+that the hypnotizer should be the first immoral individual who happens
+to come along? It is a frightful power in the hands of any one, no
+matter whom. For instance, should they be allowed to play this 'Kreutzer
+Sonata,' the first presto,--and there are many like it,--in parlors,
+among ladies wearing low necked dresses, or in concerts, then finish the
+piece, receive the applause, and then begin another piece? These things
+should be played under certain circumstances, only in cases where it is
+necessary to incite certain actions corresponding to the music. But to
+incite an energy of feeling which corresponds to neither the time nor
+the place, and is expended in nothing, cannot fail to act dangerously.
+On me in particular this piece acted in a frightful manner. One would
+have said that new sentiments, new virtualities, of which I was formerly
+ignorant, had developed in me. 'Ah, yes, that's it! Not at all as I
+lived and thought before! This is the right way to live!'
+
+"Thus I spoke to my soul as I listened to that music. What was this new
+thing that I thus learned? That I did not realize, but the consciousness
+of this indefinite state filled me with joy. In that state there was no
+room for jealousy. The same faces, and among them HE and my wife, I saw
+in a different light. This music transported me into an unknown world,
+where there was no room for jealousy. Jealousy and the feelings that
+provoke it seemed to me trivialities, nor worth thinking of.
+
+"After the presto followed the andante, not very new, with commonplace
+variations, and the feeble finale. Then they played more, at the request
+of the guests,--first an elegy by Ernst, and then various other pieces.
+They were all very well, but did not produce upon me a tenth part of the
+impression that the opening piece did. I felt light and gay throughout
+the evening. As for my wife, never had I seen her as she was that night.
+Those brilliant eyes, that severity and majestic expression while she
+was playing, and then that utter languor, that weak, pitiable, and happy
+smile after she had finished,--I saw them all and attached no importance
+to them, believing that she felt as I did, that to her, as to me, new
+sentiments had been revealed, as through a fog. During almost the whole
+evening I was not jealous.
+
+"Two days later I was to start for the assembly of the Zemstvo, and for
+that reason, on taking leave of me and carrying all his scores with him,
+Troukhatchevsky asked me when I should return. I inferred from that that
+he believed it impossible to come to my house during my absence, and
+that was agreeable to me. Now I was not to return before his departure
+from the city. So we bade each other a definite farewell. For the
+first time I shook his hand with pleasure, and thanked him for the
+satisfaction that he had given me. He likewise took leave of my wife,
+and their parting seemed to me very natural and proper. All went
+marvellously. My wife and I retired, well satisfied with the evening. We
+talked of our impressions in a general way, and we were nearer together
+and more friendly than we had been for a long time."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+"Two days later I started for the assembly, having bid farewell to my
+wife in an excellent and tranquil state of mind. In the district there
+was always much to be done. It was a world and a life apart. During two
+days I spent ten hours at the sessions. The evening of the second day,
+on returning to my district lodgings, I found a letter from my wife,
+telling me of the children, of their uncle, of the servants, and, among
+other things, as if it were perfectly natural, that Troukhatchevsky had
+been at the house, and had brought her the promised scores. He had also
+proposed that they play again, but she had refused.
+
+"For my part, I did not remember at all that he had promised any score.
+It had seemed to me on Sunday evening that he took a definite leave,
+and for this reason the news gave me a disagreeable surprise. I read the
+letter again. There was something tender and timid about it. It produced
+an extremely painful impression upon me. My heart swelled, and the mad
+beast of jealousy began to roar in his lair, and seemed to want to leap
+upon his prey. But I was afraid of this beast, and I imposed silence
+upon it.
+
+"What an abominable sentiment is jealousy! 'What could be more natural
+than what she has written?' said I to myself. I went to bed, thinking
+myself tranquil again. I thought of the business that remained to be
+done, and I went to sleep without thinking of her.
+
+"During these assemblies of the Zemstvo I always slept badly in my
+strange quarters. That night I went to sleep directly, but, as sometimes
+happens, a sort of sudden shock awoke me. I thought immediately of her,
+of my physical love for her, of Troukhatchevsky, and that between them
+everything had happened. And a feeling of rage compressed my heart, and
+I tried to quiet myself.
+
+"'How stupid!' said I to myself; 'there is no reason, none at all. And
+why humiliate ourselves, herself and myself, and especially myself,
+by supposing such horrors? This mercenary violinist, known as a bad
+man,--shall I think of him in connection with a respectable woman, the
+mother of a family, MY wife? How silly!' But on the other hand, I said
+to myself: 'Why should it not happen?'
+
+"Why? Was it not the same simple and intelligible feeling in the name
+of which I married, in the name of which I was living with her, the only
+thing I wanted of her, and that which, consequently, others desired,
+this musician among the rest? He was not married, was in good health
+(I remember how his teeth ground the gristle of the cutlets, and how
+eagerly he emptied the glass of wine with his red lips), was careful
+of his person, well fed, and not only without principles, but evidently
+with the principle that one should take advantage of the pleasure that
+offers itself. There was a bond between them, music,--the most refined
+form of sensual voluptuousness. What was there to restrain them?
+Nothing. Everything, on the contrary, attracted them. And she, she had
+been and had remained a mystery. I did not know her. I knew her only
+as an animal, and an animal nothing can or should restrain. And now
+I remember their faces on Sunday evening, when, after the 'Kreutzer
+Sonata,' they played a passionate piece, written I know not by whom, but
+a piece passionate to the point of obscenity.
+
+"'How could I have gone away?' said I to myself, as I recalled their
+faces. 'Was it not clear that between them everything was done that
+evening? Was it not clear that between them not only there were no more
+obstacles, but that both--especially she--felt a certain shame after
+what had happened at the piano? How weakly, pitiably, happily she
+smiled, as she wiped the perspiration from her reddened face! They
+already avoided each other's eyes, and only at the supper, when she
+poured some water for him, did they look at each other and smile
+imperceptibly.'
+
+"Now I remember with fright that look and that scarcely perceptible
+smile. 'Yes, everything has happened,' a voice said to me, and directly
+another said the opposite. 'Are you mad? It is impossible!' said the
+second voice.
+
+"It was too painful to me to remain thus stretched in the darkness.
+I struck a match, and the little yellow-papered room frightened me. I
+lighted a cigarette, and, as always happens, when one turns in a circle
+of inextricable contradiction, I began to smoke. I smoked cigarette
+after cigarette to dull my senses, that I might not see my
+contradictions. All night I did not sleep, and at five o'clock, when it
+was not yet light, I decided that I could stand this strain no longer,
+and that I would leave directly. There was a train at eight o'clock. I
+awakened the keeper who was acting as my servant, and sent him to look
+for horses. To the assembly of Zemstvo I sent a message that I was
+called back to Moscow by pressing business, and that I begged them to
+substitute for me a member of the Committee. At eight o'clock I got into
+a tarantass and started off."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+"I had to go twenty-five versts by carriage and eight hours by train.
+By carriage it was a very pleasant journey. The coolness of autumn was
+accompanied by a brilliant sun. You know the weather when the wheels
+imprint themselves upon the dirty road. The road was level, and the
+light strong, and the air strengthening. The tarantass was comfortable.
+As I looked at the horses, the fields, and the people whom we passed,
+I forgot where I was going. Sometimes it seemed to me that I was
+travelling without an object,--simply promenading,--and that I should
+go on thus to the end of the world. And I was happy when I so forgot
+myself. But when I remembered where I was going, I said to myself: 'I
+shall see later. Don't think about it.'
+
+"When half way, an incident happened to distract me still further. The
+tarantass, though new, broke down, and had to be repaired. The delays in
+looking for a telegue, the repairs, the payment, the tea in the inn, the
+conversation with the dvornik, all served to amuse me. Toward nightfall
+all was ready, and I started off again. By night the journey was still
+pleasanter than by day. The moon in its first quarter, a slight frost,
+the road still in good condition, the horses, the sprightly coachman,
+all served to put me in good spirits. I scarcely thought of what awaited
+me, and was gay perhaps because of the very thing that awaited me, and
+because I was about to say farewell to the joys of life.
+
+"But this tranquil state, the power of conquering my preoccupation, all
+ended with the carriage drive. Scarcely had I entered the cars, when the
+other thing began. Those eight hours on the rail were so terrible to me
+that I shall never forget them in my life. Was it because on entering
+the car I had a vivid imagination of having already arrived, or because
+the railway acts upon people in such an exciting fashion? At any rate,
+after boarding the train I could no longer control my imagination, which
+incessantly, with extraordinary vivacity, drew pictures before my eyes,
+each more cynical than its predecessor, which kindled my jealousy.
+And always the same things about what was happening at home during
+my absence. I burned with indignation, with rage, and with a peculiar
+feeling which steeped me in humiliation, as I contemplated these
+pictures. And I could not tear myself out of this condition. I could
+not help looking at them, I could not efface them, I could not keep from
+evoking them.
+
+"The more I looked at these imaginary pictures, the more I believed
+in their reality, forgetting that they had no serious foundation. The
+vivacity of these images seemed to prove to me that my imaginations
+were a reality. One would have said that a demon, against my will,
+was inventing and breathing into me the most terrible fictions.
+A conversation which dated a long time back, with the brother of
+Troukhatchevsky, I remembered at that moment, in a sort of ecstasy, and
+it tore my heart as I connected it with the musician and my wife. Yes,
+it was very long ago. The brother of Troukhatchevsky, answering my
+questions as to whether he frequented disreputable houses, said that a
+respectable man does not go where he may contract a disease, in a low
+and unclean spot, when one can find an honest woman. And here he, his
+brother, the musician, had found the honest woman. 'It is true that she
+is no longer in her early youth. She has lost a tooth on one side, and
+her face is slightly bloated,' thought I for Troukhatchevsky. 'But what
+is to be done? One must profit by what one has.'
+
+"'Yes, he is bound to take her for his mistress,' said I to myself
+again; 'and besides, she is not dangerous.'
+
+"'No, it is not possible' I rejoined in fright. 'Nothing, nothing of the
+kind has happened, and there is no reason to suppose there has. Did she
+not tell me that the very idea that I could be jealous of her because of
+him was humiliating to her?' 'Yes, but she lied,' I cried, and all began
+over again.
+
+"There were only two travellers in my compartment: an old woman with her
+husband, neither of them very talkative; and even they got out at one of
+the stations, leaving me all alone. I was like a beast in a cage. Now I
+jumped up and approached the window, now I began to walk back and forth,
+staggering as if I hoped to make the train go faster by my efforts, and
+the car with its seats and its windows trembled continually, as ours
+does now."
+
+And Posdnicheff rose abruptly, took a few steps, and sat down again.
+
+"Oh, I am afraid, I am afraid of railway carriages. Fear seizes me. I
+sat down again, and I said to myself: 'I must think of something else.
+For instance, of the inn keeper at whose house I took tea.' And then, in
+my imagination arose the dvornik, with his long beard, and his grandson,
+a little fellow of the same age as my little Basile. My little Basile!
+My little Basile! He will see the musician kiss his mother! What
+thoughts will pass through his poor soul! But what does that matter to
+her! She loves.
+
+"And again it all began, the circle of the same thoughts. I suffered
+so much that at last I did not know what to do with myself, and an idea
+passed through my head that pleased me much,--to get out upon the rails,
+throw myself under the cars, and thus finish everything. One thing
+prevented me from doing so. It was pity! It was pity for myself, evoking
+at the same time a hatred for her, for him, but not so much for him.
+Toward him I felt a strange sentiment of my humiliation and his victory,
+but toward her a terrible hatred.
+
+"'But I cannot kill myself and leave her free. She must suffer, she must
+understand at least that I have suffered,' said I to myself.
+
+"At a station I saw people drinking at the lunch counter, and directly I
+went to swallow a glass of vodki. Beside me stood a Jew, drinking also.
+He began to talk to me, and I, in order not to be left alone in my
+compartment, went with him into his third-class, dirty, full of smoke,
+and covered with peelings and sunflower seeds. There I sat down beside
+the Jew, and, as it seemed, he told many anecdotes.
+
+"First I listened to him, but I did not understand what he said. He
+noticed it, and exacted my attention to his person. Then I rose and
+entered my own compartment.
+
+"'I must consider,' said I to myself, 'whether what I think is true,
+whether there is any reason to torment myself.' I sat down, wishing to
+reflect quietly; but directly, instead of the peaceful reflections, the
+same thing began again. Instead of the reasoning, the pictures.
+
+"'How many times have I tormented myself in this way,' I thought (I
+recalled previous and similar fits of jealousy), 'and then seen it end
+in nothing at all? It is the same now. Perhaps, yes, surely, I shall
+find her quietly sleeping. She will awaken, she will be glad, and in her
+words and looks I shall see that nothing has happened, that all this is
+vain. Ah, if it would only so turn out!' 'But no, that has happened too
+often! Now the end has come,' a voice said to me.
+
+"And again it all began. Ah, what torture! It is not to a hospital
+filled with syphilitic patients that I would take a young man to deprive
+him of the desire for women, but into my soul, to show him the demon
+which tore it. The frightful part was that I recognized in myself an
+indisputable right to the body of my wife, as if her body were entirely
+mine. And at the same time I felt that I could not possess this body,
+that it was not mine, that she could do with it as she liked, and that
+she liked to do with it as I did not like. And I was powerless against
+him and against her. He, like the Vanka of the song, would sing, before
+mounting the gallows, how he would kiss her sweet lips, etc., and he
+would even have the best of it before death. With her it was still
+worse. If she HAD NOT DONE IT, she had the desire, she wished to do it,
+and I knew that she did. That was worse yet. It would be better if she
+had already done it, to relieve me of my uncertainty.
+
+"In short, I could not say what I desired. I desired that she might not
+want what she MUST want. It was complete madness."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+"At the station before the last, when the conductor came to take the
+tickets, I took my baggage and went out on the car platform, and
+the consciousness that the climax was near at hand only added to my
+agitation. I was cold, my jaw trembled so that my teeth chattered.
+Mechanically I left the station with the crowd, I took a tchik, and I
+started. I looked at the few people passing in the streets and at the
+dvorniks. I read the signs, without thinking of anything. After going
+half a verst my feet began to feel cold, and I remembered that in the
+car I had taken off my woollen socks, and had put them in my travelling
+bag. Where had I put the bag? Was it with me? Yes, and the basket?
+
+"I bethought myself that I had totally forgotten my baggage. I took out
+my check, and then decided it was not worth while to return. I continued
+on my way. In spite of all my efforts to remember, I cannot at this
+moment make out why I was in such a hurry. I know only that I was
+conscious that a serious and menacing event was approaching in my life.
+It was a case of real auto-suggestion. Was it so serious because I
+thought it so? Or had I a presentiment? I do not know. Perhaps, too,
+after what has happened, all previous events have taken on a lugubrious
+tint in my memory.
+
+"I arrived at the steps. It was an hour past midnight. A few isvotchiks
+were before the door, awaiting customers, attracted by the lighted
+windows (the lighted windows were those of our parlor and reception
+room). Without trying to account for this late illumination, I went up
+the steps, always with the same expectation of something terrible, and
+I rang. The servant, a good, industrious, and very stupid being, named
+Gregor, opened the door. The first thing that leaped to my eyes in the
+hall, on the hat-stand, among other garments, was an overcoat. I ought
+to have been astonished, but I was not astonished. I expected it.
+'That's it!' I said to myself.
+
+"When I had asked Gregor who was there, and he had named
+Troukhatchevsky, I inquired whether there were other visitors. He
+answered: 'Nobody.' I remember the air with which he said that, with
+a tone that was intended to give me pleasure, and dissipate my doubts.
+'That's it! that's it!' I had the air of saying to myself. 'And the
+children?'
+
+"'Thank God, they are very well. They went to sleep long ago.'
+
+"I scarcely breathed, and I could not keep my jaw from trembling.
+
+"Then it was not as I thought. I had often before returned home with the
+thought that a misfortune had awaited me, but had been mistaken, and
+everything was going on as usual. But now things were not going on as
+usual. All that I had imagined, all that I believed to be chimeras, all
+really existed. Here was the truth.
+
+"I was on the point of sobbing, but straightway the demon whispered in
+my ear: 'Weep and be sentimental, and they will separate quietly, and
+there will be no proofs, and all your life you will doubt and suffer.'
+And pity for myself vanished, and there remained only the bestial need
+of some adroit, cunning, and energetic action. I became a beast, an
+intelligent beast.
+
+"'No, no,' said I to Gregor, who was about to announce my arrival. 'Do
+this, take a carriage, and go at once for my baggage. Here is the check.
+Start.'
+
+"He went along the hall to get his overcoat. Fearing lest he might
+frighten them, I accompanied him to his little room, and waited for him
+to put on his things. In the dining-room could be heard the sound of
+conversation and the rattling of knives and plates. They were eating.
+They had not heard the ring. 'Now if they only do not go out,' I
+thought.
+
+"Gregor put on his fur-collared coat and went out. I closed the door
+after him. I felt anxious when I was alone, thinking that directly I
+should have to act. How? I did not yet know. I knew only that all was
+ended, that there could be no doubt of his innocence, and that in an
+instant my relations with her were going to be terminated. Before, I had
+still doubts. I said to myself: 'Perhaps this is not true. Perhaps I am
+mistaken.' Now all doubt had disappeared. All was decided irrevocably.
+Secretly, all alone with him, at night! It is a violation of all duties!
+Or, worse yet, she may make a show of that audacity, of that insolence
+in crime, which, by its excess, tends to prove innocence. All is clear.
+No doubt. I feared but one thing,--that they might run in different
+directions, that they might invent some new lie, and thus deprive me of
+material proof, and of the sorrowful joy of punishing, yes, of executing
+them.
+
+"And to surprise them more quickly, I started on tiptoe for the
+dining-room, not through the parlor, but through the hall and the
+children's rooms. In the first room slept the little boy. In the second,
+the old nurse moved in her bed, and seemed on the point of waking, and
+I wondered what she would think when she knew all. And pity for myself
+gave me such a pang that I could not keep the tears back. Not to wake
+the children, I ran lightly through the hall into my study. I dropped
+upon the sofa, and sobbed. 'I, an honest man, I, the son of my parents,
+who all my life long have dreamed of family happiness, I who have never
+betrayed! . . . And here my five children, and she embracing a musician
+because he has red lips! No, she is not a woman! She is a bitch, a dirty
+bitch! Beside the chamber of the children, whom she had pretended to
+love all her life! And then to think of what she wrote me! And how do
+I know? Perhaps it has always been thus. Perhaps all these children,
+supposed to be mine, are the children of my servants. And if I had
+arrived to-morrow, she would have come to meet me with her coiffure,
+with her corsage, her indolent and graceful movements (and I see her
+attractive and ignoble features), and this jealous animal would have
+remained forever in my heart, tearing it. What will the old nurse say?
+And Gregor? And the poor little Lise? She already understands things.
+And this impudence, this falsehood, this bestial sensuality, that I know
+so well,' I said to myself.
+
+"I tried to rise. I could not. My heart was beating so violently that
+I could not hold myself upon my legs. 'Yes, I shall die of a rush of
+blood. She will kill me. That is what she wants. What is it to her to
+kill? But that would be too agreeable to him, and I will not allow him
+to have this pleasure.
+
+"Yes, here I am, and there they are. They are laughing, they. . . . Yes,
+in spite of the fact that she is no longer in her early youth, he has
+not disdained her. At any rate, she is by no means ugly, and above
+all, not dangerous to his dear health, to him. Why did I not stifle
+her then?' said I to myself, as I remembered that other scene of the
+previous week, when I drove her from my study, and broke the furniture.
+
+"And I recalled the state in which I was then. Not only did I recall it,
+but I again entered into the same bestial state. And suddenly there came
+to me a desire to act, and all reasoning, except such as was necessary
+to action, vanished from my brain, and I was in the condition of a
+beast, and of a man under the influence of physical excitement pending a
+danger, who acts imperturbably, without haste, and yet without losing a
+minute, pursuing a definite object.
+
+"The first thing that I did was to take off my boots, and now, having
+only stockings on, I advanced toward the wall, over the sofa, where
+firearms and daggers were hanging, and I took down a curved Damascus
+blade, which I had never used, and which was very sharp. I took it from
+its sheath. I remember that the sheath fell upon the sofa, and that I
+said to myself: 'I must look for it later; it must not be lost.'
+
+"Then I took off my overcoat, which I had kept on all the time, and with
+wolf-like tread started for THE ROOM. I do not remember how I proceeded,
+whether I ran or went slowly, through what chambers I passed, how I
+approached the dining-room, how I opened the door, how I entered. I
+remember nothing about it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+"I Remember only the expression of their faces when I opened the door. I
+remember that, because it awakened in me a feeling of sorrowful joy.
+It was an expression of terror, such as I desired. Never shall I forget
+that desperate and sudden fright that appeared on their faces when they
+saw me. He, I believe, was at the table, and, when he saw or heard me,
+he started, jumped to his feet, and retreated to the sideboard. Fear
+was the only sentiment that could be read with certainty in his face.
+In hers, too, fear was to be read, but accompanied by other impressions.
+And yet, if her face had expressed only fear, perhaps that which
+happened would not have happened. But in the expression of her face
+there was at the first moment--at least, I thought I saw it--a feeling
+of ennui, of discontent, at this disturbance of her love and happiness.
+One would have said that her sole desire was not to be disturbed IN THE
+MOMENT OF HER HAPPINESS. But these expressions appeared upon their
+faces only for a moment. Terror almost immediately gave place to
+interrogation. Would they lie or not? If yes, they must begin. If not,
+something else was going to happen. But what?
+
+"He gave her a questioning glance. On her face the expression of anguish
+and ennui changed, it seemed to me, when she looked at him, into an
+expression of anxiety for HIM. For a moment I stood in the doorway,
+holding the dagger hidden behind my back. Suddenly he smiled, and in a
+voice that was indifferent almost to the point of ridicule, he said:
+
+"'We were having some music.'
+
+"'I did not expect--,' she began at the same time, chiming in with the
+tone of the other.
+
+"But neither he nor she finished their remarks. The same rage that I had
+felt the previous week took possession of me. I felt the need of giving
+free course to my violence and 'the joy of wrath.'
+
+"No, they did not finish. That other thing was going to begin, of which
+he was afraid, and was going to annihilate what they wanted to say.
+I threw myself upon her, still hiding the dagger, that he might not
+prevent me from striking where I desired, in her bosom, under the
+breast. At that moment he saw . . . and, what I did not expect on his
+part, he quickly seized my hand, and cried:
+
+"'Come to your senses! What are you doing? Help! Help!'
+
+"I tore my hands from his grasp, and leaped upon him. I must have been
+very terrible, for he turned as white as a sheet, to his lips. His eyes
+scintillated singularly, and--again what I did not expect of him--he
+scrambled under the piano, toward the other room. I tried to follow him,
+but a very heavy weight fell upon my left arm. It was she.
+
+"I made an effort to clear myself. She clung more heavily than ever,
+refusing to let go. This unexpected obstacle, this burden, and this
+repugnant touch only irritated me the more. I perceived that I was
+completely mad, that I must be frightful, and I was glad of it. With
+a sudden impulse, and with all my strength, I dealt her, with my left
+elbow, a blow squarely in the face.
+
+"She uttered a cry and let go my arm. I wanted to follow the other, but
+I felt that it would be ridiculous to pursue in my stockings the lover
+of my wife, and I did not wish to be grotesque, I wished to be terrible.
+In spite of my extreme rage, I was all the time conscious of the
+impression that I was making upon others, and even this impression
+partially guided me.
+
+"I turned toward her. She had fallen on the long easy chair, and,
+covering her face at the spot where I had struck her, she looked at me.
+Her features exhibited fear and hatred toward me, her enemy, such as the
+rat exhibits when one lifts the rat-trap. At least, I saw nothing in her
+but that fear and hatred, the fear and hatred which love for another had
+provoked. Perhaps I still should have restrained myself, and should
+not have gone to the last extremity, if she had maintained silence. But
+suddenly she began to speak; she grasped my hand that held the dagger.
+
+"'Come to your senses! What are you doing? What is the matter with you?
+Nothing has happened, nothing, nothing! I swear it to you!'
+
+"I might have delayed longer, but these last words, from which I
+inferred the contrary of what they affirmed,--that is, that EVERYTHING
+had happened,--these words called for a reply. And the reply must
+correspond to the condition into which I had lashed myself, and which
+was increasing and must continue to increase. Rage has its laws.
+
+"'Do not lie, wretch. Do not lie!' I roared.
+
+"With my left hand I seized her hands. She disengaged herself. Then,
+without dropping my dagger, I seized her by the throat, forced her to
+the floor, and began to strangle her. With her two hands she clutched
+mine, tearing them from her throat, stifling. Then I struck her a blow
+with the dagger, in the left side, between the lower ribs.
+
+"When people say that they do not remember what they do in a fit of
+fury, they talk nonsense. It is false. I remember everything.
+
+"I did not lose my consciousness for a single moment. The more I lashed
+myself to fury, the clearer my mind became, and I could not help seeing
+what I did. I cannot say that I knew in advance what I would do, but at
+the moment when I acted, and it seems to me even a little before, I knew
+what I was doing, as if to make it possible to repent, and to be able to
+say later that I could have stopped.
+
+"I knew that I struck the blow between the ribs, and that the dagger
+entered.
+
+"At the second when I did it, I knew that I was performing a horrible
+act, such as I had never performed,--an act that would have frightful
+consequences. My thought was as quick as lightning, and the deed
+followed immediately. The act, to my inner sense, had an extraordinary
+clearness. I perceived the resistance of the corset and then something
+else, and then the sinking of the knife into a soft substance. She
+clutched at the dagger with her hands, and cut herself with it, but
+could not restrain the blow.
+
+"Long afterward, in prison when the moral revolution had been effected
+within me, I thought of that minute, I remembered it as far as I could,
+and I co-ordinated all the sudden changes. I remembered the terrible
+consciousness which I felt,--that I was killing a wife, MY wife.
+
+"I well remember the horror of that consciousness and I know vaguely
+that, having plunged in the dagger, I drew it out again immediately,
+wishing to repair and arrest my action. She straightened up and cried:
+
+"'Nurse, he has killed me!'
+
+"The old nurse, who had heard the noise, was standing in the doorway. I
+was still erect, waiting, and not believing myself in what had happened.
+But at that moment, from under her corset, the blood gushed forth. Then
+only did I understand that all reparation was impossible, and promptly
+I decided that it was not even necessary, that all had happened in
+accordance with my wish, and that I had fulfilled my desire. I waited
+until she fell, and until the nurse, exclaiming, 'Oh, my God!' ran to
+her; then only I threw away the dagger and went out of the room.
+
+"'I must not be agitated. I must be conscious of what I am doing,' I
+said to myself, looking neither at her nor at the old nurse. The latter
+cried and called the maid. I passed through the hall, and, after having
+sent the maid, started for my study.
+
+"'What shall I do now?' I asked myself.
+
+"And immediately I understood what I should do. Directly after entering
+the study, I went straight to the wall, took down the revolver, and
+examined it attentively. It was loaded. Then I placed it on the table.
+Next I picked up the sheath of the dagger, which had dropped down
+behind the sofa, and then I sat down. I remained thus for a long time.
+I thought of nothing, I did not try to remember anything. I heard a
+stifled noise of steps, a movement of objects and of tapestries, then
+the arrival of a person, and then the arrival of another person. Then
+I saw Gregor bring into my room the baggage from the railway; as if any
+one needed it!
+
+"'Have you heard what has happened?' I asked him. 'Have you told the
+dvornik to inform the police?'
+
+"He made no answer, and went out. I rose, closed the door, took the
+cigarettes and the matches, and began to smoke. I had not finished one
+cigarette, when a drowsy feeling came over me and sent me into a deep
+sleep. I surely slept two hours. I remember having dreamed that I was on
+good terms with her, that after a quarrel we were in the act of making
+up, that something prevented us, but that we were friends all the same.
+
+"A knock at the door awoke me.
+
+"'It is the police,' thought I, as I opened my eyes. 'I have killed, I
+believe. But perhaps it is SHE; perhaps nothing has happened.'
+
+"Another knock. I did not answer. I was solving the question: 'Has it
+happened or not? Yes, it has happened.'
+
+"I remembered the resistance of the corset, and then. . . . 'Yes, it has
+happened. Yes, it has happened. Yes, now I must execute myself,' said I
+to myself.
+
+"I said it, but I knew well that I should not kill myself. Nevertheless,
+I rose and took the revolver, but, strange thing, I remembered that
+formerly I had very often had suicidal ideas, that that very night, on
+the cars, it had seemed to me easy, especially easy because I thought
+how it would stupefy her. Now I not only could not kill myself, but I
+could not even think of it.
+
+"'Why do it?' I asked myself, without answering.
+
+"Another knock at the door.
+
+"'Yes, but I must first know who is knocking. I have time enough.'
+
+"I put the revolver back on the table, and hid it under my newspaper. I
+went to the door and drew back the bolt.
+
+"It was my wife's sister,--a good and stupid widow.
+
+"'Basile, what does this mean?' said she, and her tears, always ready,
+began to flow.
+
+"'What do you want?' I asked roughly.
+
+"I saw clearly that there was no necessity of being rough with her, but
+I could not speak in any other tone.
+
+"'Basile, she is dying. Ivan Fedorowitch says so.'
+
+"Ivan Fedorowitch was the doctor, HER doctor, her counsellor.
+
+"'Is he here?' I inquired.
+
+"And all my hatred of her arose anew.
+
+"Well, what?
+
+"'Basile, go to her! Ah! how terrible it is!' said she.
+
+"'Go to her?' I asked myself; and immediately I made answer to myself
+that I ought to go, that probably that was the thing that is usually
+done when a husband like myself kills his wife, that it was absolutely
+necessary that I should go and see her.
+
+"'If that is the proper thing, I must go,' I repeated to myself. 'Yes,
+if it is necessary, I shall still have time,' said I to myself, thinking
+of my intention of blowing my brains out.
+
+"And I followed my sister-in-law. 'Now there are going to be phrases and
+grimaces, but I will not yield,' I declared to myself.
+
+"'Wait,' said I to my sister-in-law, 'it is stupid to be without boots.
+Let me at least put on my slippers.'"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+"Strange thing! Again, when I had left my study, and was passing through
+the familiar rooms, again the hope came to me that nothing had happened.
+But the odor of the drugs, iodoform and phenic acid, brought me back to
+a sense of reality.
+
+"'No, everything has happened.'
+
+"In passing through the hall, beside the children's chamber, I saw
+little Lise. She was looking at me, with eyes that were full of fear. I
+even thought that all the children were looking at me. As I approached
+the door of our sleeping-room, a servant opened it from within, and
+came out. The first thing that I noticed was HER light gray dress upon
+a chair, all dark with blood. On our common bed she was stretched, with
+knees drawn up.
+
+"She lay very high, upon pillows, with her chemise half open. Linen had
+been placed upon the wound. A heavy smell of iodoform filled the room.
+Before, and more than anything else, I was astonished at her face, which
+was swollen and bruised under the eyes and over a part of the nose. This
+was the result of the blow that I had struck her with my elbow, when
+she had tried to hold me back. Of beauty there was no trace left. I saw
+something hideous in her. I stopped upon the threshold.
+
+"'Approach, approach her,' said her sister.
+
+"'Yes, probably she repents,' thought I; 'shall I forgive her? Yes, she
+is dying, I must forgive her,' I added, trying to be generous.
+
+"I approached the bedside. With difficulty she raised her eyes, one of
+which was swollen, and uttered these words haltingly:
+
+"'You have accomplished what you desired. You have killed me.'
+
+"And in her face, through the physical sufferings, in spite of the
+approach of death, was expressed the same old hatred, so familiar to me.
+
+"'The children . . . I will not give them to you . . . all the
+same. . . . She (her sister) shall take them.' . . .
+
+"But of that which I considered essential, of her fault, of her treason,
+one would have said that she did not think it necessary to say even a
+word.
+
+"'Yes, revel in what you have done.'
+
+"And she sobbed.
+
+"At the door stood her sister with the children.
+
+"'Yes, see what you have done!'
+
+"I cast a glance at the children, and then at her bruised and swollen
+face, and for the first time I forgot myself (my rights, my pride), and
+for the first time I saw in her a human being, a sister.
+
+"And all that which a moment before had been so offensive to me now
+seemed to me so petty,--all this jealousy,--and, on the contrary, what
+I had done seemed to me so important that I felt like bending over,
+approaching my face to her hand, and saying:
+
+"'Forgive me!'
+
+"But I did not dare. She was silent, with eyelids lowered, evidently
+having no strength to speak further. Then her deformed face began to
+tremble and shrivel, and she feebly pushed me back.
+
+"'Why has all this happened? Why?'
+
+"'Forgive me,' said I.
+
+"'Yes, if you had not killed me,' she cried suddenly, and her eyes shone
+feverishly. 'Forgiveness--that is nothing. . . . If I only do not die!
+Ah, you have accomplished what you desired! I hate you!'
+
+"Then she grew delirious. She was frightened, and cried:
+
+"'Fire, I do not fear . . . but strike them all . . . He has gone. . . .
+He has gone.' . . .
+
+"The delirium continued. She no longer recognized the children, not even
+little Lise, who had approached. Toward noon she died. As for me, I was
+arrested before her death, at eight o'clock in the morning. They took
+me to the police station, and then to prison, and there, during eleven
+months, awaiting the verdict, I reflected upon myself, and upon my past,
+and I understood it. Yes, I began to understand from the third day. The
+third day they took me to the house." . . .
+
+Posdnicheff seemed to wish to add something, but, no longer having the
+strength to repress his sobs, he stopped. After a few minutes, having
+recovered his calmness, he resumed:
+
+"I began to understand only when I saw her in the coffin." . . .
+
+He uttered a sob, and then immediately continued, with haste:
+
+"Then only, when I saw her dead face, did I understand all that I had
+done. I understood that it was I, I, who had killed her. I understood
+that I was the cause of the fact that she, who had been a moving,
+living, palpitating being, had now become motionless and cold, and that
+there was no way of repairing this thing. He who has not lived through
+that cannot understand it."
+
+*****
+
+We remained silent a long time. Posdnicheff sobbed and trembled before
+me. His face had become delicate and long, and his mouth had grown
+larger.
+
+"Yes," said he suddenly, "if I had known what I now know, I should never
+have married her, never, not for anything."
+
+Again we remained silent for a long time.
+
+"Yes, that is what I have done, that is my experience, We must
+understand the real meaning of the words of the Gospel,--Matthew, V.
+28,--'that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed
+adultery'; and these words relate to the wife, to the sister, and not
+only to the wife of another, but especially to one's own wife."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+If the reading of this book has interested you, do not fail to get its
+sequel, entitled "KREUTZER SONATA BEARING FRUIT," by Pauline Grayson,
+which is an exceedingly interesting narrative showing one of the results
+of the ideas set forth in "Kreutzer Sonata." It is bound in paper
+covers and will be sent by mail, postage paid, upon receipt of 25 cents.
+Address all orders to J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 57 Rose Street,
+New York.
+
+
+
+
+LESSON OF "THE KREUTZER SONATA."
+
+I have received, and still continue to receive, numbers of letters from
+persons who are perfect strangers to me, asking me to state in plain
+and simple language my own views on the subject handled in the story
+entitled "The Kreutzer Sonata." With this request I shall now endeavor
+to comply.
+
+My views on the question may be succinctly stated as follows: Without
+entering into details, it will be generally admitted that I am accurate
+in saying that many people condone in young men a course of conduct with
+regard to the other sex which is incompatible with strict morality,
+and that this dissoluteness is pardoned generally. Both parents and
+the government, in consequence of this view, may be said to wink at
+profligacy, and even in the last resource to encourage its practice. I
+am of opinion that this is not right.
+
+It is not possible that the health of one class should necessitate the
+ruin of another, and, in consequence, it is our first duty to turn a
+deaf ear to such an essential immoral doctrine, no matter how strongly
+society may have established or law protected it. Moreover, it needs to
+be fully recognized that men are rightly to be held responsible for
+the consequences of their own acts, and that these are no longer to be
+visited on the woman alone. It follows from this that it is the duty of
+men who do not wish to lead a life of infamy to practice such continence
+in respect to all woman as they would were the female society in which
+they move made up exclusively of their own mothers and sisters.
+
+A more rational mode of life should be adopted which would include
+abstinence from all alcoholic drinks, from excess in eating and from
+flesh meat, on the one hand, and recourse to physical labor on the
+other. I am not speaking of gymnastics, or of any of those occupations
+which may be fitly described as playing at work; I mean the genuine toil
+that fatigues. No one need go far in search of proofs that this kind of
+abstemious living is not merely possible, but far less hurtful to health
+than excess. Hundreds of instances are known to every one. This is my
+first contention.
+
+In the second place, I think that of late years, through various reasons
+which I need not enter, but among which the above-mentioned laxity
+of opinion in society and the frequent idealization of the subject in
+current literature and painting may be mentioned, conjugal infidelity
+has become more common and is considered less reprehensible. I am of
+opinion that this is not right. The origin of the evil is twofold. It is
+due, in the first place, to a natural instinct, and, in the second, to
+the elevation of this instinct to a place to which it does not rightly
+belong. This being so, the evil can only be remedied by effecting a
+change in the views now in vogue about "falling in love" and all that
+this term implies, by educating men and women at home through family
+influence and example, and abroad by means of healthy public opinion, to
+practice that abstinence which morality and Christianity alike enjoin.
+This is my second contention.
+
+In the third place I am of opinion that another consequence of the false
+light in which "falling in love," and what it leads to, are viewed
+in our society, is that the birth of children has lost its pristine
+significance, and that modern marriages are conceived less and less from
+the point of view of the family. I am of opinion that this is not right.
+This is my third contention.
+
+In the fourth place, I am of opinion that the children (who in our
+society are considered an obstacle to enjoyment--an unlucky accident, as
+it were) are educated not with a view to the problem which they will be
+one day called on to face and to solve, but solely with an eye to
+the pleasure which they may be made to yield to their parents. The
+consequence is, that the children of human beings are brought up for
+all the world like the young of animals, the chief care of their parents
+being not to train them to such work as is worthy of men and women, but
+to increase their weight, or add a cubit to their stature, to make them
+spruce, sleek, well-fed, and comely. They rig them out in all manner of
+fantastic costumes, wash them, over-feed them, and refuse to make them
+work. If the children of the lower orders differ in this last respect
+from those of the well-to-do classes, the difference is merely formal;
+they work from sheer necessity, and not because their parents recognize
+work as a duty. And in over-fed children, as in over-fed animals,
+sensuality is engendered unnaturally early.
+
+Fashionable dress to-day, the course of reading, plays, music, dances,
+luscious food, all the elements of our modern life, in a word, from the
+pictures on the little boxes of sweetmeats up to the novel, the tale,
+and the poem, contribute to fan this sensuality into a strong, consuming
+flame, with the result that sexual vices and diseases have come to be
+the normal conditions of the period of tender youth, and often continue
+into the riper age of full-blown manhood. And I am of opinion that this
+is not right.
+
+It is high time it ceased. The children of human beings should not be
+brought up as if they were animals; and we should set up as the object
+and strive to maintain as the result of our labors something better and
+nobler than a well-dressed body. This is my fourth contention.
+
+In the fifth place, I am of opinion that, owing to the exaggerated and
+erroneous significance attributed by our society to love and to the
+idealized states that accompany and succeed it, the best energies of our
+men and women are drawn forth and exhausted during the most promising
+period of life; those of the men in the work of looking for, choosing,
+and winning the most desirable objects of love, for which purpose lying
+and fraud are held to be quite excusable; those of the women and girls
+in alluring men and decoying them into liaisons or marriage by the most
+questionable means conceivable, as an instance of which the present
+fashions in evening dress may be cited. I am of opinion that this is not
+right.
+
+The truth is, that the whole affair has been exalted by poets and
+romancers to an undue importance, and that love in its various
+developments is not a fitting object to consume the best energies of
+men. People set it before them and strive after it, because their view
+of life is as vulgar and brutish as is that other conception frequently
+met with in the lower stages of development, which sees in luscious
+and abundant food an end worthy of man's best efforts. Now, this is not
+right and should not be done. And, in order to avoid doing it, it is
+only needful to realize the fact that whatever truly deserves to be held
+up as a worthy object of man's striving and working, whether it be the
+service of humanity, of one's country, of science, of art, not to speak
+of the service of God, is far above and beyond the sphere of personal
+enjoyment. Hence, it follows that not only to form a liaison, but
+even to contract marriage, is, from a Christian point of view, not a
+progress, but a fall. Love, and all the states that accompany and follow
+it, however we may try in prose and verse to prove the contrary, never
+do and never can facilitate the attainment of an aim worthy of men, but
+always make it more difficult. This is my fifth contention.
+
+How about the human race? If we admit that celibacy is better and nobler
+than marriage, evidently the human race will come to an end. But, if the
+logical conclusion of the argument is that the human race will become
+extinct, the whole reasoning is wrong.
+
+To that I reply that the argument is not mine; I did not invent it. That
+it is incumbent on mankind so to strive, and that celibacy is preferable
+to marriage, are truths revealed by Christ 1,900 years ago, set forth in
+our catechisms, and professed by us as followers of Christ.
+
+Chastity and celibacy, it is urged, cannot constitute the ideal of
+humanity, because chastity would annihilate the race which strove
+to realize it, and humanity cannot set up as its ideal its own
+annihilation. It may be pointed out in reply that only that is a true
+ideal, which, being unattainable, admits of infinite gradation in
+degrees of proximity. Such is the Christian ideal of the founding of
+God's kingdom, the union of all living creatures by the bonds of love.
+The conception of its attainment is incompatible with the conception
+of the movement of life. What kind of life could subsist if all
+living creatures were joined together by the bonds of love? None. Our
+conception of life is inseparably bound up with the conception of a
+continual striving after an unattainable ideal.
+
+But even if we suppose the Christian ideal of perfect chastity realized,
+what then? We should merely find ourselves face to face on the one hand
+with the familiar teaching of religion, one of whose dogmas is that the
+world will have an end; and on the other of so-called science, which
+informs us that the sun is gradually losing its heat, the result of
+which will in time be the extinction of the human race.
+
+Now there is not and cannot be such an institution as Christian
+marriage, just as there cannot be such a thing as a Christian liturgy
+(Matt. vi. 5-12; John iv. 21), nor Christian teachers, nor church
+fathers (Matt. xxiii. 8-10), nor Christian armies, Christian law courts,
+nor Christian States. This is what was always taught and believed by
+true Christians of the first and following centuries. A Christian's
+ideal is not marriage, but love for God and for his neighbor.
+Consequently in the eyes of a Christian relations in marriage not only
+do not constitute a lawful, right, and happy state, as our society and
+our churches maintain, but, on the contrary, are always a fall.
+
+Such a thing as Christian marriage never was and never could be. Christ
+did not marry, nor did he establish marriage; neither did his disciples
+marry. But if Christian marriage cannot exist, there is such a thing as
+a Christian view of marriage. And this is how it may be formulated: A
+Christian (and by this term I understand not those who call themselves
+Christians merely because they were baptized and still receive the
+sacrament once a year, but those whose lives are shaped and regulated
+by the teachings of Christ), I say, cannot view the marriage relation
+otherwise than as a deviation from the doctrine of Christ,--as a sin.
+This is clearly laid down in Matt. v. 28, and the ceremony called
+Christian marriage does not alter its character one jot. A Christian
+will never, therefore, desire marriage, but will always avoid it.
+
+If the light of truth dawns upon a Christian when he is already married,
+or if, being a Christian, from weakness he enters into marital relations
+with the ceremonies of the church, or without them, he has no other
+alternative than to abide with his wife (and the wife with her husband,
+if it is she who is a Christian) and to aspire together with her to free
+themselves of their sin. This is the Christian view of marriage; and
+there cannot be any other for a man who honestly endeavors to shape his
+life in accordance with the teachings of Christ.
+
+To very many persons the thoughts I have uttered here and in "The
+Kreutzer Sonata" will seem strange, vague, even contradictory. They
+certainly do contradict, not each other, but the whole tenor of our
+lives, and involuntarily a doubt arises, "on which side is truth,--on
+the side of the thoughts which seem true and well-founded, or on the
+side of the lives of others and myself?" I, too, was weighed down
+by that same doubt when writing "The Kreutzer Sonata." I had not the
+faintest presentiment that the train of thought I had started would lead
+me whither it did. I was terrified by my own conclusion, and I was at
+first disposed to reject it, but it was impossible not to hearken to the
+voice of my reason and my conscience. And so, strange though they may
+appear to many, opposed as they undoubtedly are to the trend and tenor
+of our lives, and incompatible though they may prove with what I have
+heretofore thought and uttered, I have no choice but to accept them.
+"But man is weak," people will object. "His task should be regulated by
+his strength."
+
+This is tantamount to saying, "My hand is weak. I cannot draw a straight
+line,--that is, a line which will be the shortest line between two given
+points,--and so, in order to make it more easy for myself, I, intending
+to draw a straight, will choose for my model a crooked line."
+
+The weaker my hand, the greater the need that my model should be
+perfect.
+
+LEO TOLSTOI.
+
+
+
+
+IVAN THE FOOL.
+
+Copyright, 1891, by CHAS. L. WEBSTER & CO.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+In a certain kingdom there lived a rich peasant, who had three
+sons--Simeon (a soldier), Tarras-Briukhan (fat man), and Ivan (a
+fool)--and one daughter, Milania, born dumb. Simeon went to war, to
+serve the Czar; Tarras went to a city and became a merchant; and Ivan,
+with his sister, remained at home to work on the farm.
+
+For his valiant service in the army, Simeon received an estate with high
+rank, and married a noble's daughter. Besides his large pay, he was in
+receipt of a handsome income from his estate; yet he was unable to make
+ends meet. What the husband saved, the wife wasted in extravagance. One
+day Simeon went to the estate to collect his income, when the steward
+informed him that there was no income, saying:
+
+"We have neither horses, cows, fishing-nets, nor implements; it is
+necessary first to buy everything, and then to look for income."
+
+Simeon thereupon went to his father and said:
+
+"You are rich, batiushka [little father], but you have given nothing
+to me. Give me one-third of what you possess as my share, and I will
+transfer it to my estate."
+
+The old man replied: "You did not help to bring prosperity to our
+household. For what reason, then, should you now demand the third part
+of everything? It would be unjust to Ivan and his sister."
+
+"Yes," said Simeon; "but he is a fool, and she was born dumb. What need
+have they of anything?"
+
+"See what Ivan will say."
+
+Ivan's reply was: "Well, let him take his share."
+
+Simeon took the portion allotted to him, and went again to serve in the
+army.
+
+Tarras also met with success. He became rich and married a merchant's
+daughter, but even this failed to satisfy his desires, and he also went
+to his father and said, "Give me my share."
+
+The old man, however, refused to comply with his request, saying: "You
+had no hand in the accumulation of our property, and what our household
+contains is the result of Ivan's hard work. It would be unjust," he
+repeated, "to Ivan and his sister."
+
+Tarras replied: "But he does not need it. He is a fool, and cannot
+marry, for no one will have him; and sister does not require anything,
+for she was born dumb." Turning then to Ivan he continued: "Give me half
+the grain you have, and I will not touch the implements or fishing-nets;
+and from the cattle I will take only the dark mare, as she is not fit to
+plow."
+
+Ivan laughed and said: "Well, I will go and arrange matters so that
+Tarras may have his share," whereupon Tarras took the brown mare with
+the grain to town, leaving Ivan with one old horse to work on as before
+and support his father, mother, and sister.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+It was disappointing to the Stary Tchert (Old Devil) that the brothers
+did not quarrel over the division of the property, and that they
+separated peacefully; and he cried out, calling his three small devils
+(Tchertionki).
+
+"See here," said he, "there are living three brothers--Simeon the
+soldier, Tarras-Briukhan, and Ivan the Fool. It is necessary that
+they should quarrel. Now they live peacefully, and enjoy each other's
+hospitality. The Fool spoiled all my plans. Now you three go and work
+with them in such a manner that they will be ready to tear each other's
+eyes out. Can you do this?"
+
+"We can," they replied.
+
+"How will you accomplish it?"
+
+"In this way: We will first ruin them to such an extent that they will
+have nothing to eat, and we will then gather them together in one place
+where we are sure that they will fight."
+
+"Very well; I see you understand your business. Go, and do not return to
+me until you have created a feud between the three brothers--or I will
+skin you alive."
+
+The three small devils went to a swamp to consult as to the best means
+of accomplishing their mission. They disputed for a long time--each
+one wanting the easiest part of the work--and not being able to agree,
+concluded to draw lots; by which it was decided that the one who was
+first finished had to come and help the others. This agreement being
+entered into, they appointed a time when they were again to meet in the
+swamp--to find out who was through and who needed assistance.
+
+The time having arrived, the young devils met in the swamp as agreed,
+when each related his experience. The first, who went to Simeon, said:
+"I have succeeded in my undertaking, and to-morrow Simeon returns to his
+father."
+
+His comrades, eager for particulars, inquired how he had done it.
+
+"Well," he began, "the first thing I did was to blow some courage into
+his veins, and, on the strength of it, Simeon went to the Czar and
+offered to conquer the whole world for him. The Emperor made him
+commander-in-chief of the forces, and sent him with an army to fight the
+Viceroy of India. Having started on their mission of conquest, they were
+unaware that I, following in their wake, had wet all their powder.
+I also went to the Indian ruler and showed him how I could create
+numberless soldiers from straw.
+
+"Simeon's army, seeing that they were surrounded by such a vast number of
+Indian warriors of my creation, became frightened, and Simeon commanded
+to fire from cannons and rifles, which of course they were unable to
+do. The soldiers, discouraged, retreated in great disorder. Thus Simeon
+brought upon himself the terrible disgrace of defeat. His estate was
+confiscated, and to-morrow he is to be executed. All that remains for
+me to do, therefore," concluded the young devil, "is to release him
+to-morrow morning. Now, then, who wants my assistance?"
+
+The second small devil (from Tarras) then related his story.
+
+"I do not need any help," he began. "My business is also all right. My
+work with Tarras will be finished in one week. In the first place I made
+him grow thin. He afterward became so covetous that he wanted to possess
+everything he saw, and he spent all the money he had in the purchase
+of immense quantities of goods. When his capital was gone he still
+continued to buy with borrowed money, and has become involved in such
+difficulties that he cannot free himself. At the end of one week the
+date for the payment of his notes will have expired, and, his goods
+being seized upon, he will become a bankrupt; and he also will return to
+his father."
+
+At the conclusion of this narrative they inquired of the third devil how
+things had fared between him and Ivan.
+
+"Well," said he, "my report is not so encouraging. The first thing I did
+was to spit into his jug of quass [a sour drink made from rye],
+which made him sick at his stomach. He afterward went to plow his
+summer-fallow, but I made the soil so hard that the plow could scarcely
+penetrate it. I thought the Fool would not succeed, but he started to
+work nevertheless. Moaning with pain, he still continued to labor. I
+broke one plow, but he replaced it with another, fixing it securely, and
+resumed work. Going beneath the surface of the ground I took hold of the
+plowshares, but did not succeed in stopping Ivan. He pressed so hard,
+and the colter was so sharp, that my hands were cut; and despite my
+utmost efforts, he went over all but a small portion of the field."
+
+He concluded with: "Come, brothers, and help me, for if we do not
+conquer him our whole enterprise will be a failure. If the Fool is
+permitted successfully to conduct his farming, they will have no need,
+for he will support his brothers."
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Ivan having succeeded in plowing all but a small portion of his land, he
+returned the next day to finish it. The pain in his stomach continued,
+but he felt that he must go on with his work. He tried to start his
+plow, but it would not move; it seemed to have struck a hard root. It
+was the small devil in the ground who had wound his feet around the
+plowshares and held them.
+
+"This is strange," thought Ivan. "There were never any roots here
+before, and this is surely one."
+
+Ivan put his hand in the ground, and, feeling something soft, grasped
+and pulled it out. It was like a root in appearance, but seemed
+to possess life. Holding it up he saw that it was a little devil.
+Disgusted, he exclaimed, "See the nasty thing," and he proceeded to
+strike it a blow, intending to kill it, when the young devil cried out:
+
+"Do not kill me, and I will grant your every wish."
+
+"What can you do for me?"
+
+"Tell me what it is you most wish for," the little devil replied.
+
+Ivan, peasant-fashion, scratched the back of his head as he thought, and
+finally he said:
+
+"I am dreadfully sick at my stomach. Can you cure me?"
+
+"I can," the little devil said.
+
+"Then do so."
+
+The little devil bent toward the earth and began searching for roots,
+and when he found them he gave them to Ivan, saying: "If you will
+swallow some of these you will be immediately cured of whatsoever
+disease you are afflicted with."
+
+Ivan did as directed, and obtained instant relief.
+
+"I beg of you to let me go now," the little devil pleaded; "I will pass
+into the earth, never to return."
+
+"Very well; you may go, and God bless you;" and as Ivan pronounced the
+name of God, the small devil disappeared into the earth like a flash,
+and only a slight opening in the ground remained.
+
+Ivan placed in his hat what roots he had left, and proceeded to plow.
+Soon finishing his work, he turned his plow over and returned home.
+
+When he reached the house he found his brother Simeon and his wife
+seated at the supper-table. His estate had been confiscated, and he
+himself had barely escaped execution by making his way out of prison,
+and having nothing to live upon had come back to his father for support.
+
+Turning to Ivan he said: "I came to ask you to care for us until I can
+find something to do."
+
+"Very well," Ivan replied; "you may remain with us."
+
+Just as Ivan was about to sit down to the table Simeon's wife made a wry
+face, indicating that she did not like the smell of Ivan's sheep-skin
+coat; and turning to her husband she said, "I shall not sit at the table
+with a moujik [peasant] who smells like that."
+
+Simeon the soldier turned to his brother and said: "My lady objects to
+the smell of your clothes. You may eat in the porch."
+
+Ivan said: "Very well, it is all the same to me. I will soon have to go
+and feed my horse any way."
+
+Ivan took some bread in one hand, and his kaftan (coat) in the other,
+and left the room.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+The small devil finished with Simeon that night, and according to
+agreement went to the assistance of his comrade who had charge of
+Ivan, that he might help to conquer the Fool. He went to the field and
+searched everywhere, but could find nothing but the hole through which
+the small devil had disappeared.
+
+"Well, this is strange," he said; "something must have happened to my
+companion, and I will have to take his place and continue the work he
+began. The Fool is through with his plowing, so I must look about me
+for some other means of compassing his destruction. I must overflow his
+meadow and prevent him from cutting the grass."
+
+The little devil accordingly overflowed the meadow with muddy water,
+and, when Ivan went at dawn next morning with his scythe set and
+sharpened and tried to mow the grass, he found that it resisted all his
+efforts and would not yield to the implement as usual.
+
+Many times Ivan tried to cut the grass, but always without success. At
+last, becoming weary of the effort, he decided to return home and have
+his scythe again sharpened, and also to procure a quantity of bread,
+saying: "I will come back here and will not leave until I have mown all
+the meadow, even if it should take a whole week."
+
+Hearing this, the little devil became thoughtful, saying: "That Ivan is
+a koolak [hard case], and I must think of some other way of conquering
+him."
+
+Ivan soon returned with his sharpened scythe and started to mow.
+
+The small devil hid himself in the grass, and as the point of the scythe
+came down he buried it in the earth and made it almost impossible for
+Ivan to move the implement. He, however, succeeded in mowing all but
+one small spot in the swamp, where again the small devil hid himself,
+saying: "Even if he should cut my hands I will prevent him from
+accomplishing his work."
+
+When Ivan came to the swamp he found that the grass was not very thick.
+Still, the scythe would not work, which made him so angry that he worked
+with all his might, and one blow more powerful than the others cut off a
+portion of the small devil's tail, who had hidden himself there.
+
+Despite the little devil's efforts he succeeded in finishing his work,
+when he returned home and ordered his sister to gather up the grass
+while he went to another field to cut rye. But the devil preceded him
+there, and fixed the rye in such a manner that it was almost impossible
+for Ivan to cut it; however, after continuous hard labor he succeeded,
+and when he was through with the rye he said to himself: "Now I will
+start to mow oats."
+
+On hearing this, the little devil thought to himself: "I could not
+prevent him from mowing the rye, but I will surely stop him from mowing
+the oats when the morning comes."
+
+Early next day, when the devil came to the field, he found that the oats
+had been already mowed. Ivan did it during the night, so as to avoid
+the loss that might have resulted from the grain being too ripe and dry.
+Seeing that Ivan again had escaped him, the little devil became greatly
+enraged, saying:
+
+"He cut me all over and made me tired, that fool. I did not meet such
+misfortune even on the battle-field. He does not even sleep;" and the
+devil began to swear. "I cannot follow him," he continued. "I will go
+now to the heaps and make everything rotten."
+
+Accordingly he went to a heap of the new-mown grain and began his
+fiendish work. After wetting it he built a fire and warmed himself, and
+soon was fast asleep.
+
+Ivan harnessed his horse, and, with his sister, went to bring the rye
+home from the field.
+
+After lifting a couple of sheaves from the first heap his pitchfork came
+into contact with the little devil's back, which caused the latter to
+howl with pain and to jump around in every direction. Ivan exclaimed:
+
+"See here! What nastiness! You again here?"
+
+"I am another one!" said the little devil. "That was my brother. I am
+the one who was sent to your brother Simeon."
+
+"Well," said Ivan, "it matters not who you are. I will fix you all the
+same."
+
+As Ivan was about to strike the first blow the devil pleaded: "Let me go
+and I will do you no more harm. I will do whatever you wish."
+
+"What can you do for me?" asked Ivan.
+
+"I can make soldiers from almost anything."
+
+"And what will they be good for?"
+
+"Oh, they will do everything for you!"
+
+"Can they sing?"
+
+"They can."
+
+"Well, make them."
+
+"Take a bunch of straw and scatter it on the ground, and see if each
+straw will not turn into a soldier."
+
+Ivan shook the straws on the ground, and, as he expected, each straw
+turned into a soldier, and they began marching with a band at their
+head.
+
+"Ishty [look you], that was well done! How it will delight the village
+maidens!" he exclaimed.
+
+The small devil now said: "Let me go; you do not need me any longer."
+
+But Ivan said: "No, I will not let you go just yet. You have converted
+the straw into soldiers, and now I want you to turn them again into
+straw, as I cannot afford to lose it, but I want it with the grain on."
+
+The devil replied: "Say: 'So many soldiers, so much straw.'"
+
+Ivan did as directed, and got back his rye with the straw.
+
+The small devil again begged for his release.
+
+Ivan, taking him from the pitchfork, said: "With God's blessing you may
+depart"; and, as before at the mention of God's name, the little devil
+was hurled into the earth like a flash, and nothing was left but the
+hole to show where he had gone.
+
+Soon afterward Ivan returned home, to find his brother Tarras and his
+wife there. Tarras-Briukhan could not pay his debts, and was forced to
+flee from his creditors and seek refuge under his father's roof. Seeing
+Ivan, he said: "Well, Ivan, may we remain here until I start in some new
+business?"
+
+Ivan replied as he had before to Simeon: "Yes, you are perfectly welcome
+to remain here as long as it suits you."
+
+With that announcement he removed his coat and seated himself at the
+supper-table with the others. But Tarras-Briukhan's wife objected to the
+smell of his clothes, saying: "I cannot eat with a fool; neither can I
+stand the smell."
+
+Then Tarras-Briukhan said: "Ivan, from your clothes there comes a bad
+smell; go and eat by yourself in the porch."
+
+"Very well," said Ivan; and he took some bread and went out as ordered,
+saying, "It is time for me to feed my mare."
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The small devil who had charge of Tarras finished with him that night,
+and according to agreement proceeded to the assistance of the other two
+to help them conquer Ivan. Arriving at the plowed field he looked
+around for his comrades, but found only the hole through which one had
+disappeared; and on going to the meadow he discovered the severed tail
+of the other, and in the rye-field he found yet another hole.
+
+"Well," he thought, "it is quite clear that my comrades have met with
+some great misfortune, and that I will have to take their places and
+arrange the feud between the brothers."
+
+The small devil then went in search of Ivan. But he, having finished
+with the field, was nowhere to be found. He had gone to the forest to
+cut logs to build homes for his brothers, as they found it inconvenient
+for so many to live under the same roof.
+
+The small devil at last discovered his whereabouts, and going to the
+forest climbed into the branches of the trees and began to interfere
+with Ivan's work. Ivan cut down a tree, which failed, however, to fall
+to the ground, becoming entangled in the branches of other trees; yet he
+succeeded in getting it down after a hard struggle. In chopping down the
+next tree he met with the same difficulties, and also with the third.
+Ivan had supposed he could cut down fifty trees in a day, but he
+succeeded in chopping but ten before darkness put an end to his labors
+for a time. He was now exhausted, and, perspiring profusely, he sat down
+alone in the woods to rest. He soon after resumed his work, cutting down
+one more tree; but the effort gave him a pain in his back, and he was
+obliged to rest again. Seeing this, the small devil was full of joy.
+
+"Well," he thought, "now he is exhausted and will stop work, and I will
+rest also." He then seated himself on some branches and rejoiced.
+
+Ivan again arose, however, and, taking his axe, gave the tree a terrific
+blow from the opposite side, which felled it instantly to the ground,
+carrying the little devil with it; and Ivan, proceeding to cut the
+branches, found the devil alive. Very much astonished, Ivan exclaimed:
+
+"Look you! Such nastiness! Are you again here?"
+
+"I am another one," replied the devil. "I was with your brother Tarras."
+
+"Well," said Ivan, "that makes no difference; I will fix you." And he
+was about to strike him a blow with the axe when the devil pleaded:
+
+"Do not kill me, and whatever you wish you shall have."
+
+Ivan asked, "What can you do?"
+
+"I can make for you all the money you wish."
+
+Ivan then told the devil he might proceed, whereupon the latter began to
+explain to him how he might become rich.
+
+"Take," said he to Ivan, "the leaves of this oak tree and rub them in
+your hands, and the gold will fall to the ground."
+
+Ivan did as he was directed, and immediately the gold began to drop
+about his feet; and he remarked:
+
+"This will be a fine trick to amuse the village boys with."
+
+"Can I now take my departure?" asked the devil, to which Ivan replied,
+"With God's blessing you may go."
+
+At the mention of the name of God, the devil disappeared into the earth.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The brothers, having finished their houses, moved into them and lived
+apart from their father and brother. Ivan, when he had completed his
+plowing, made a great feast, to which he invited his brothers, telling
+them that he had plenty of beer for them to drink. The brothers,
+however, declined Ivan's hospitality, saying, "We have seen the beer
+moujiks drink, and want none of it."
+
+Ivan then gathered around him all the peasants in the village and
+with them drank beer until he became intoxicated, when he joined the
+Khorovody (a street gathering of the village boys and girls, who sing
+songs), and told them they must sing his praises, saying that in return
+he would show them such sights as they had never before seen in their
+lives. The little girls laughed and began to sing songs praising Ivan,
+and when they had finished they said: "Very well; now give us what you
+said you would."
+
+Ivan replied, "I will soon show you," and, taking an empty bag in his
+hand, he started for the woods. The little girls laughed as they said,
+"What a fool he is!" and resuming their play they forgot all about him.
+
+Some time after Ivan suddenly appeared among them carrying in his hand
+the bag, which was now filled.
+
+"Shall I divide this with you?" he said.
+
+"Yes; divide!" they sang in chorus.
+
+So Ivan put his hand into the bag and drew it out full of gold coins,
+which he scattered among them.
+
+"Batiushka," they cried as they ran to gather up the precious pieces.
+
+The moujiks then appeared on the scene and began to fight among
+themselves for the possession of the yellow objects. In the melee one
+old woman was nearly crushed to death.
+
+Ivan laughed and was greatly amused at the sight of so many persons
+quarrelling over a few pieces of gold.
+
+"Oh! you duratchki" (little fools), he said, "why did you almost crush
+the life out of the old grandmother? Be more gentle. I have plenty more,
+and I will give them to you;" whereupon he began throwing about more of
+the coins.
+
+The people gathered around him, and Ivan continued throwing until he
+emptied his bag. They clamored for more, but Ivan replied: "The gold
+is all gone. Another time I will give you more. Now we will resume our
+singing and dancing."
+
+The little children sang, but Ivan said to them, "Your songs are no
+good."
+
+The children said, "Then show us how to sing better."
+
+To this Ivan replied, "I will show you people who can sing better than
+you." With that remark Ivan went to the barn and, securing a bundle
+of straw, did as the little devil had directed him; and presently a
+regiment of soldiers appeared in the village street, and he ordered them
+to sing and dance.
+
+The people were astonished and could not understand how Ivan had
+produced the strangers.
+
+The soldiers sang for some time, to the great delight of the villagers;
+and when Ivan commanded them to stop they instantly ceased.
+
+Ivan then ordered them off to the barn, telling the astonished and
+mystified moujiks that they must not follow him. Reaching the barn,
+he turned the soldiers again into straw and went home to sleep off the
+effects of his debauch.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+The next morning Ivan's exploits were the talk of the village, and news
+of the wonderful things he had done reached the ears of his brother
+Simeon, who immediately went to Ivan to learn all about it.
+
+"Explain to me," he said; "from whence did you bring the soldiers, and
+where did you take them?"
+
+"And what do you wish to know for?" asked Ivan.
+
+"Why, with soldiers we can do almost anything we wish--whole kingdoms
+can be conquered," replied Simeon.
+
+This information greatly surprised Ivan, who said: "Well, why did you
+not tell me about this before? I can make as many as you want."
+
+Ivan then took his brother to the barn, but he said: "While I am willing
+to create the soldiers, you must take them away from here; for if it
+should become necessary to feed them, all the food in the village would
+last them only one day."
+
+Simeon promised to do as Ivan wished, whereupon Ivan proceeded to
+convert the straw into soldiers. Out of one bundle of straw he made an
+entire regiment; in fact, so many soldiers appeared as if by magic that
+there was not a vacant spot in the field.
+
+Turning to Simeon Ivan said, "Well, is there a sufficient number?"
+
+Beaming with joy, Simeon replied: "Enough! enough! Thank you, Ivan!"
+
+"Glad you are satisfied," said Ivan, "and if you wish more I will make
+them for you. I have plenty of straw now."
+
+Simeon divided his soldiers into battalions and regiments, and after
+having drilled them he went forth to fight and to conquer.
+
+Simeon had just gotten safely out of the village with his soldiers when
+Tarras, the other brother, appeared before Ivan--he also having heard
+of the previous day's performance and wanting to learn the secret of
+his power. He sought Ivan, saying: "Tell me the secret of your supply of
+gold, for if I had plenty of money I could with its assistance gather in
+all the wealth in the world."
+
+Ivan was greatly surprised on hearing this statement, and said: "You
+might have told me this before, for I can obtain for you as much money
+as you wish."
+
+Tarras was delighted, and he said, "You might get me about three
+bushels."
+
+"Well," said Ivan, "we will go to the woods, or, better still, we
+will harness the horse, as we could not possibly carry so much money
+ourselves."
+
+The brothers went to the woods and Ivan proceeded to gather the oak
+leaves, which he rubbed between his hands, the dust falling to the
+ground and turning into gold pieces as quickly as it fell.
+
+When quite a pile had accumulated Ivan turned to Tarras and asked if he
+had rubbed enough leaves into money, whereupon Tarras replied: "Thank
+you, Ivan; that will be sufficient for this time."
+
+Ivan then said: "If you wish more, come to me and I will rub as much as
+you want, for there are plenty of leaves."
+
+Tarras, with his tarantas (wagon) filled with gold, rode away to the
+city to engage in trade and increase his wealth; and thus both brothers
+went their way, Simeon to fight and Tarras to trade.
+
+Simeon's soldiers conquered a kingdom for him and Tarras-Briukhan made
+plenty of money.
+
+Some time afterward the two brothers met and confessed to each other
+the source from whence sprang their prosperity, but they were not yet
+satisfied.
+
+Simeon said: "I have conquered a kingdom and enjoy a very pleasant life,
+but I have not sufficient money to procure food for my soldiers;" while
+Tarras confessed that he was the possessor of enormous wealth, but the
+care of it caused him much uneasiness.
+
+"Let us go again to our brother," said Simeon; "I will order him to make
+more soldiers and will give them to you, and you may then tell him that
+he must make more money so that we can buy food for them."
+
+They went again to Ivan, and Simeon said: "I have not sufficient
+soldiers; I want you to make me at least two divisions more." But Ivan
+shook his head as he said: "I will not create soldiers for nothing; you
+must pay me for doing it."
+
+"Well, but you promised," said Simeon.
+
+"I know I did," replied Ivan; "but I have changed my mind since that
+time."
+
+"But, fool, why will you not do as you promised?"
+
+"For the reason that your soldiers kill men, and I will not make any
+more for such a cruel purpose." With this reply Ivan remained stubborn
+and would not create any more soldiers.
+
+Tarras-Briukhan next approached Ivan and ordered him to make more money;
+but, as in the case of Tarras, Ivan only shook his head, as he said:
+"I will not make you any money unless you pay me for doing it. I cannot
+work without pay."
+
+Tarras then reminded him of his promise.
+
+"I know I promised," replied Ivan; "but still I must refuse to do as you
+wish."
+
+"But why, fool, will you not fulfill your promise?" asked Tarras.
+
+"For the reason that your gold was the means of depriving Mikhailovna of
+her cow."
+
+"But how did that happen?" inquired Tarras.
+
+"It happened in this way," said Ivan. "Mikhailovna always kept a cow,
+and her children had plenty of milk to drink; but some time ago one of
+her boys came to me to beg for some milk, and I asked, 'Where is your
+cow?' when he replied, 'A clerk of Tarras-Briukhan came to our home
+and offered three gold pieces for her. Our mother could not resist the
+temptation, and now we have no milk to drink. I gave you the gold pieces
+for your pleasure, and you put them to such poor use that I will not
+give you any more.'"
+
+The brothers, on hearing this, took their departure to discuss as to the
+best plan to pursue in regard to a settlement of their troubles.
+
+Simeon said: "Let us arrange it in this way: I will give you the half of
+my kingdom, and soldiers to keep guard over your wealth; and you give me
+money to feed the soldiers in my half of the kingdom."
+
+To this arrangement Tarras agreed, and both the brothers became rulers
+and very happy.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Ivan remained on the farm and worked to support his father, mother, and
+dumb sister. Once it happened that the old dog, which had grown up on
+the farm, was taken sick, when Ivan thought he was dying, and, taking
+pity on the animal, placed some bread in his hat and carried it to him.
+It happened that when he turned out the bread the root which the little
+devil had given him fell out also. The old dog swallowed it with the
+bread and was almost instantly cured, when he jumped up and began to wag
+his tail as an expression of joy. Ivan's father and mother, seeing
+the dog cured so quickly, asked by what means he had performed such a
+miracle.
+
+Ivan replied: "I had some roots which would cure any disease, and the
+dog swallowed one of them."
+
+It happened about that time that the Czar's daughter became ill, and her
+father had it announced in every city, town, and village that whosoever
+would cure her would be richly rewarded; and if the lucky person should
+prove to be a single man he would give her in marriage to him.
+
+This announcement, of course, appeared in Ivan's village.
+
+Ivan's father and mother called him and said: "If you have any of those
+wonderful roots, go and cure the Czar's daughter. You will be much
+happier for having performed such a kind act--indeed, you will be made
+happy for all your after life."
+
+"Very well," said Ivan; and he immediately made ready for the journey.
+As he reached the porch on his way out he saw a poor woman standing
+directly in his path and holding a broken arm. The woman accosted him,
+saying:
+
+"I was told that you could cure me, and will you not please do so, as I
+am powerless to do anything for myself?"
+
+Ivan replied: "Very well, my poor woman; I will relieve you if I can."
+
+He produced a root which he handed to the poor woman and told her to
+swallow it.
+
+She did as Ivan told her and was instantly cured, and went away
+rejoicing that she had recovered the use of her arm.
+
+Ivan's father and mother came out to wish him good luck on his journey,
+and to them he told the story of the poor woman, saying that he
+had given her his last root. On hearing this his parents were much
+distressed, as they now believed him to be without the means of curing
+the Czar's daughter, and began to scold him.
+
+"You had pity for a beggar and gave no thought to the Czar's daughter,"
+they said.
+
+"I have pity for the Czar's daughter also," replied Ivan, after which
+he harnessed his horse to his wagon and took his seat ready for his
+departure; whereupon his parents said: "Where are you going, you
+fool--to cure the Czar's daughter, and without anything to do it with?"
+
+"Very well," replied Ivan, as he drove away.
+
+In due time he arrived at the palace, and the moment he appeared on
+the balcony the Czar's daughter was cured. The Czar was overjoyed and
+ordered Ivan to be brought into his presence. He dressed him in the
+richest robes and addressed him as his son-in-law. Ivan was married to
+the Czarevna, and, the Czar dying soon after, Ivan became ruler. Thus
+the three brothers became rulers in different kingdoms.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The brothers lived and reigned. Simeon, the eldest brother, with his
+straw soldiers took captive the genuine soldiers and trained all alike.
+He was feared by every one.
+
+Tarras-Briukhan, the other brother, did not squander the gold he
+obtained from Ivan, but instead greatly increased his wealth, and at
+the same time lived well. He kept his money in large trunks, and, while
+having more than he knew what to do with, still continued to collect
+money from his subjects. The people had to work for the money to pay the
+taxes which Tarras levied on them, and life was made burdensome to them.
+
+Ivan the Fool did not enjoy his wealth and power to the same extent
+as did his brothers. As soon as his father-in-law, the late Czar, was
+buried, he discarded the Imperial robes which had fallen to him and told
+his wife to put them away, as he had no further use for them. Having
+cast aside the insignia of his rank, he once more donned his peasant
+garb and started to work as of old.
+
+"I felt lonesome," he said, "and began to grow enormously stout, and yet
+I had no appetite, and neither could I sleep."
+
+Ivan sent for his father, mother, and dumb sister, and brought them to
+live with him, and they worked with him at whatever he chose to do.
+
+The people soon learned that Ivan was a fool. His wife one day said to
+him, "The people say you are a fool, Ivan."
+
+"Well, let them think so if they wish," he replied.
+
+His wife pondered this reply for some time, and at last decided that
+if Ivan was a fool she also was one, and that it would be useless to go
+contrary to her husband, thinking affectionately of the old proverb that
+"where the needle goes there goes the thread also." She therefore cast
+aside her magnificent robes, and, putting them into the trunk
+with Ivan's, dressed herself in cheap clothing and joined her dumb
+sister-in-law, with the intention of learning to work. She succeeded so
+well that she soon became a great help to Ivan.
+
+Seeing that Ivan was a fool, all the wise men left the kingdom and only
+the fools remained. They had no money, their wealth consisting only
+of the products of their labor. But they lived peacefully together,
+supported themselves in comfort, and had plenty to spare for the needy
+and afflicted.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+The old devil grew tired of waiting for the good news which he expected
+the little devils to bring him. He waited in vain to hear of the ruin of
+the brothers, so he went in search of the emissaries which he had sent
+to perform that work for him. After looking around for some time, and
+seeing nothing but the three holes in the ground, he decided that they
+had not succeeded in their work and that he would have to do it himself.
+
+The old devil next went in search of the brothers, but he could learn
+nothing of their whereabouts. After some time he found them in their
+different kingdoms, contented and happy. This greatly incensed the
+old devil, and he said, "I will now have to accomplish their mission
+myself."
+
+He first visited Simeon the soldier, and appeared before him as a
+voyevoda (general), saying: "You, Simeon, are a great warrior, and I
+also have had considerable experience in warfare, and am desirous of
+serving you."
+
+Simeon questioned the disguised devil, and seeing that he was an
+intelligent man took him into his service.
+
+The new General taught Simeon how to strengthen his army until it became
+very powerful. New implements of warfare were introduced.
+
+Cannons capable of throwing one hundred balls a minute were also
+constructed, and these, it was expected, would be of deadly effect in
+battle.
+
+Simeon, on the advice of his new General, ordered all young men above a
+certain age to report for drill. On the same advice Simeon established
+gun-shops, where immense numbers of cannons and rifles were made.
+
+The next move of the new General was to have Simeon declare war against
+the neighboring kingdom. This he did, and with his immense army marched
+into the adjoining territory, which he pillaged and burned, destroying
+more than half the enemy's soldiers. This so frightened the ruler of
+that country that he willingly gave up half of his kingdom to save the
+other half.
+
+Simeon, overjoyed at his success, declared his intention of marching
+into Indian territory and subduing the Viceroy of that country.
+
+But Simeon's intentions reached the ears of the Indian ruler, who
+prepared to do battle with him. In addition to having secured all
+the latest implements of warfare, he added still others of his own
+invention. He ordered all boys over fourteen and all single women to
+be drafted into the army, until its proportions became much larger than
+Simeon's. His cannons and rifles were of the same pattern as Simeon's,
+and he invented a flying-machine from which bombs could be thrown into
+the enemy's camp.
+
+Simeon went forth to conquer the Viceroy with full confidence in his own
+powers to succeed. This time luck forsook him, and instead of being the
+conqueror he was himself conquered.
+
+The Indian ruler had so arranged his army that Simeon could not even
+get within shooting distance, while the bombs from the flying-machine
+carried destruction and terror in their path, completely routing his
+army, so that Simeon was left alone.
+
+The Viceroy took possession of his kingdom and Simeon had to fly for his
+life.
+
+Having finished with Simeon, the old devil next approached Tarras. He
+appeared before him disguised as one of the merchants of his kingdom,
+and established factories and began to make money. The "merchant" paid
+the highest price for everything he purchased, and the people ran after
+him to sell their goods. Through this "merchant" they were enabled to
+make plenty of money, paying up all their arrears of taxes as well as
+the others when they came due.
+
+Tarras was overjoyed at this condition of affairs and said: "Thanks to
+this merchant, now I will have more money than before, and life will be
+much pleasanter for me."
+
+He wished to erect new buildings, and advertised for workmen, offering
+the highest prices for all kinds of labor. Tarras thought the people
+would be as anxious to work as formerly, but instead he was much
+surprised to learn that they were working for the "merchant." Thinking
+to induce them to leave the "merchant," he increased his offers, but the
+former, equal to the emergency, also raised the wages of his workmen.
+Tarras, having plenty of money, increased the offers still more; but
+the "merchant" raised them still higher and got the better of him. Thus,
+defeated at every point, Tarras was compelled to abandon the idea of
+building.
+
+Tarras next announced that he intended laying out gardens and erecting
+fountains, and the work was to be commenced in the fall, but no one
+came to offer his services, and again he was obliged to forego his
+intentions. Winter set in, and Tarras wanted some sable fur with which
+to line his great-coat, and he sent his man to procure it for him; but
+the servant returned without it, saying: "There are no sables to be had.
+The 'merchant' has bought them all, paying a very high price for them."
+
+Tarras needed horses and sent a messenger to purchase them, but he
+returned with the same story as on former occasions--that none were to
+be found, the "merchant" having bought them all to carry water for an
+artificial pond he was constructing. Tarras was at last compelled to
+suspend business, as he could not find any one willing to work for him.
+They had all gone over to the "merchant's" side. The only dealings the
+people had with Tarras were when they went to pay their taxes. His money
+accumulated so fast that he could not find a place to put it, and his
+life became miserable. He abandoned all idea of entering upon the new
+venture, and only thought of how to exist peaceably. This he found
+it difficult to do, for, turn which way he would, fresh obstacles
+confronted him. Even his cooks, coachmen, and all his other servants
+forsook him and joined the "merchant." With all his wealth he had
+nothing to eat, and when he went to market he found the "merchant" had
+been there before him and had bought up all the provisions. Still, the
+people continued to bring him money.
+
+Tarras at last became so indignant that he ordered the "merchant" out
+of his kingdom. He left, but settled just outside the boundary line, and
+continued his business with the same result as before, and Tarras was
+frequently forced to go without food for days. It was rumored that the
+"merchant" wanted to buy even Tarras himself. On hearing this the latter
+became very much alarmed and could not decide as to the best course to
+pursue.
+
+About this time his brother Simeon arrived in the kingdom, and said:
+"Help me, for I have been defeated and ruined by the Indian Viceroy."
+
+Tarras replied: "How can I help you, when I have had no food myself for
+two days?"
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The old devil, having finished with the second brother, went to Ivan the
+Fool. This time he disguised himself as a General, the same as in the
+case of Simeon, and, appearing before Ivan, said: "Get an army together.
+It is disgraceful for the ruler of a kingdom to be without an army. You
+call your people to assemble, and I will form them into a fine large
+army."
+
+Ivan took the supposed General's advice, and said: "Well, you may form
+my people into an army, but you must also teach them to sing the songs I
+like."
+
+The old devil then went through Ivan's kingdom to secure recruits for
+the army, saying: "Come, shave your heads [the heads of recruits are
+always shaved in Russia] and I will give each of you a red hat and
+plenty of vodki" (whiskey).
+
+At this the fools only laughed, and said: "We can have all the vodki we
+want, for we distill it ourselves; and of hats, our little girls make
+all we want, of any color we please, and with handsome fringes."
+
+Thus was the devil foiled in securing recruits for his army; so
+he returned to Ivan and said: "Your fools will not volunteer to be
+soldiers. It will therefore be necessary to force them."
+
+"Very well," replied Ivan, "you may use force if you want to."
+
+The old devil then announced that all the fools must become soldiers,
+and those who refused, Ivan would punish with death.
+
+The fools went to the General; and said: "You tell us that Ivan will
+punish with death all those who refuse to become soldiers, but you have
+omitted to state what will be done with us soldiers. We have been told
+that we are only to be killed."
+
+"Yes, that is true," was the reply.
+
+The fools on hearing this became stubborn and refused to go.
+
+"Better kill us now if we cannot avoid death, but we will not become
+soldiers," they declared.
+
+"Oh! you fools," said the old devil, "soldiers may and may not be
+killed; but if you disobey Ivan's orders you will find certain death at
+his hands."
+
+The fools remained absorbed in thought for some time and finally went to
+Ivan to question him in regard to the matter.
+
+On arriving at his house they said: "A General came to us with an order
+from you that we were all to become soldiers, and if we refused you were
+to punish us with death. Is it true?"
+
+Ivan began to laugh heartily on hearing this, and said: "Well, how I
+alone can punish you with death is something I cannot understand. If I
+was not a fool myself I would be able to explain it to you, but as it is
+I cannot."
+
+"Well, then, we will not go," they said.
+
+"Very well," replied Ivan, "you need not become soldiers unless you wish
+to."
+
+The old devil, seeing his schemes about to prove failures, went to the
+ruler of Tarakania and became his friend, saying: "Let us go and
+conquer Ivan's kingdom. He has no money, but he has plenty of cattle,
+provisions, and various other things that would be useful to us."
+
+The Tarakanian ruler gathered his large army together, and equipping it
+with cannons and rifles, crossed the boundary line into Ivan's kingdom.
+The people went to Ivan and said: "The ruler of Tarakania is here with a
+large army to fight us."
+
+"Let them come," replied Ivan.
+
+The Tarakanian ruler, after crossing the line into Ivan's kingdom,
+looked in vain for soldiers to fight against; and waiting some time and
+none appearing, he sent his own warriors to attack the villages.
+
+They soon reached the first village, which they began to plunder.
+
+The fools of both sexes looked calmly on, offering not the least
+resistance when their cattle and provisions were being taken from them.
+On the contrary, they invited the soldiers to come and live with them,
+saying: "If you, dear friends, find it is difficult to earn a living in
+your own land, come and live with us, where everything is plentiful."
+
+The soldiers decided to remain, finding the people happy and prosperous,
+with enough surplus food to supply many of their neighbors. They were
+surprised at the cordial greetings which they everywhere received, and,
+returning to the ruler of Tarakania, they said: "We cannot fight with
+these people--take us to another place. We would much prefer the dangers
+of actual warfare to this unsoldierly method of subduing the village."
+
+The Tarakanian ruler, becoming enraged, ordered the soldiers to destroy
+the whole kingdom, plunder the villages, burn the houses and provisions,
+and slaughter the cattle.
+
+"Should you disobey my orders," said he, "I will have every one of you
+executed."
+
+The soldiers, becoming frightened, started to do as they were ordered,
+but the fools wept bitterly, offering no resistance, men, women, and
+children all joining in the general lamentation.
+
+"Why do you treat us so cruelly?" they cried to the invading soldiers.
+"Why do you wish to destroy everything we have? If you have more need
+of these things than we have, why not take them with you and leave us in
+peace?"
+
+The soldiers, becoming saddened with remorse, refused further to
+pursue their path of destruction--the entire army scattering in many
+directions.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The old devil, failing to ruin Ivan's kingdom with soldiers, transformed
+himself into a nobleman, dressed exquisitely, and became one of
+Ivan's subjects, with the intention of compassing the downfall of his
+kingdom--as he had done with that of Tarras.
+
+The "nobleman" said to Ivan: "I desire to teach you wisdom and to render
+you other service. I will build you a palace and factories."
+
+"Very well," said Ivan; "you may live with us."
+
+The next day the "nobleman" appeared on the Square with a sack of gold
+in his hand and a plan for building a house, saying to the people: "You
+are living like pigs, and I am going to teach you how to live decently.
+You are to build a house for me according to this plan. I will
+superintend the work myself, and will pay you for your services in
+gold," showing them at the same time the contents of his sack.
+
+The fools were amused. They had never before seen any money. Their
+business was conducted entirely by exchange of farm products or by
+hiring themselves out to work by the day in return for whatever they
+most needed. They therefore glanced at the gold pieces with amazement,
+and said, "What nice toys they would be to play with!" In return for the
+gold they gave their services and brought the "nobleman" the produce of
+their farms.
+
+The old devil was overjoyed as he thought, "Now my enterprise is on a
+fair road and I will be able to ruin the Fool--as I did his brothers."
+
+The fools obtained sufficient gold to distribute among the entire
+community, the women and young girls of the village wearing much of it
+as ornaments, while to the children they gave some pieces to play with
+on the streets.
+
+When they had secured all they wanted they stopped working and the
+"noblemen" did not get his house more than half finished. He had neither
+provisions nor cattle for the year, and ordered the people to bring him
+both. He directed them also to go on with the building of the palace and
+factories. He promised to pay them liberally in gold for everything they
+did. No one responded to his call--only once in awhile a little boy or
+girl would call to exchange eggs for his gold.
+
+Thus was the "nobleman" deserted, and, having nothing to eat, he went
+to the village to procure some provisions for his dinner. He went to
+one house and offered gold in return for a chicken, but was refused, the
+owner saying: "We have enough of that already and do not want any more."
+
+He next went to a fish-woman to buy some herring, when she, too, refused
+to accept his gold in return for fish, saying: "I do not wish it, my
+dear man; I have no children to whom I can give it to play with. I have
+three pieces which I keep as curiosities only."
+
+He then went to a peasant to buy bread, but he also refused to accept
+the gold. "I have no use for it," said he, "unless you wish to give it
+for Christ's sake; then it will be a different matter, and I will tell
+my baba [old woman] to cut a piece of bread for you."
+
+The old devil was so angry that he ran away from the peasant, spitting
+and cursing as he went.
+
+Not only did the offer to accept in the name of Christ anger him, but
+the very mention of the name was like the thrust of a knife in his
+throat.
+
+The old devil did not succeed in getting any bread, and in his efforts
+to secure other articles of food he met with the same failure. The
+people had all the gold they wanted and what pieces they had they
+regarded as curiosities. They said to the old devil: "If you bring us
+something else in exchange for food, or come to ask for Christ's sake,
+we will give you all you want."
+
+But the old devil had nothing but gold, and was too lazy to work;
+and being unable to accept anything for Christ's sake, he was greatly
+enraged.
+
+"What else do you want?" he said. "I will give you gold with which you
+can buy everything you want, and you need labor no longer."
+
+But the fools would not accept his gold, nor listen to him. Thus the old
+devil was obliged to go to sleep hungry.
+
+Tidings of this condition of affairs soon reached the ears of Ivan. The
+people went to him and said: "What shell we do? This nobleman appeared
+among us; he is well dressed; he wishes to eat and drink of the best,
+but is unwilling to work, and does not beg for food for Christ's sake.
+He only offers every one gold pieces. At first we gave him everything he
+wanted, taking the gold pieces in exchange just as curiosities; but
+now we have enough of them and refuse to accept any more from him. What
+shall we do with him? he may die of hunger!"
+
+Ivan heard all they had to say, and told them to employ him as a
+shepherd, taking turns in doing so.
+
+The old devil saw no other way out of the difficulty and was obliged to
+submit.
+
+It soon came the old devil's turn to go to Ivan's house. He went there
+to dinner and found Ivan's dumb sister preparing the meal. She was often
+cheated by the lazy people, who while they did not work, yet ate up all
+the gruel. But she learned to know the lazy people from the condition of
+their hands. Those with great welts on their hands she invited first
+to the table, and those having smooth white hands had to take what was
+left.
+
+The old devil took a seat at the table, but the dumb girl, taking his
+hands, looked at them, and seeing them white and clean, and with long
+nails, swore at him and put him from the table.
+
+Ivan's wife said to the old devil: "You must excuse my sister-in-law;
+she will not allow any one to sit at the table whose hands have not been
+hardened by toil, so you will have to wait until the dinner is over and
+then you can have what is left. With it you must be satisfied."
+
+The old devil was very much offended that he was made to eat with
+"pigs," as he expressed it, and complained to Ivan, saying: "The foolish
+law you have in your kingdom, that all persons must work, is surely the
+invention of fools. People who work for a living are not always forced
+to labor with their hands. Do you think wise men labor so?"
+
+Ivan replied: "Well, what do fools know about it? We all work with our
+hands."
+
+"And for that reason you are fools," replied the devil. "I can teach you
+how to use your brains, and you will find such labor more beneficial."
+
+Ivan was surprised at hearing this, and said:
+
+"Well, it is perhaps not without good reason that we are called fools."
+
+"It is not so easy to work with the brain," the old devil said.
+"You will not give me anything to eat because my hands have not the
+appearance of being toil-hardened, but you must understand that it is
+much harder to do brain-work, and sometimes the head feels like bursting
+with the effort it is forced to make."
+
+"Then why do you not select some light work that you can perform with
+your hands?" Ivan asked.
+
+The devil said: "I torment myself with brain-work because I have pity
+for you fools, for, if I did not torture myself, people like you would
+remain fools for all eternity. I have exercised my brain a great deal
+during my life, and now I am able to teach you."
+
+Ivan was greatly surprised and said: "Very well; teach us, so that when
+our hands are tired we can use our heads to replace them."
+
+The devil promised to instruct the people, and Ivan announced the fact
+throughout his kingdom.
+
+The devil was willing to teach all those who came to him how to use the
+head instead of the hands, so as to produce more with the former than
+with the latter.
+
+In Ivan's kingdom there was a high tower, which was reached by a long,
+narrow ladder leading up to the balcony, and Ivan told the old devil
+that from the top of the tower every one could see him.
+
+So the old devil went up to the balcony and addressed the people.
+
+The fools came in great crowds to hear what the old devil had to say,
+thinking that he really meant to tell them how to work with the head.
+But the old devil only told them in words what to do, and did not give
+them any practical instruction. He said that men working only with their
+hands could not make a living. The fools did not understand what he
+said to them and looked at him in amazement, and then departed for their
+daily work.
+
+The old devil addressed them for two days from the balcony, and at the
+end of that time, feeling hungry, he asked the people to bring him some
+bread. But they only laughed at him and told him if he could work better
+with his head than with his hands he could also find bread for himself.
+He addressed the people for yet another day, and they went to hear him
+from curiosity, but soon left him to return to their work.
+
+Ivan asked, "Well, did the nobleman work with his head?"
+
+"Not yet," they said; "so far he has only talked."
+
+One day, while the old devil was standing on the balcony, he became
+weak, and, falling down, hurt his head against a pole.
+
+Seeing this, one of the fools ran to Ivan's wife and said, "The
+gentleman has at last commenced to work with his head."
+
+She ran to the field to tell Ivan, who was much surprised, and said,
+"Let us go and see him."
+
+He turned his horses' heads in the direction of the tower, where the old
+devil remained weak from hunger and was still suspended from the pole,
+with his body swaying back and forth and his head striking the lower
+part of the pole each time it came in contact with it. While Ivan
+was looking, the old devil started down the steps head-first--as they
+supposed, to count them.
+
+"Well," said Ivan, "he told the truth after all--that sometimes from
+this kind of work the head bursts. This is far worse than welts on the
+hands."
+
+The old devil fell to the ground head-foremost. Ivan approached him,
+but at that instant the ground opened and the devil disappeared, leaving
+only a hole to show where he had gone.
+
+Ivan scratched his head and said: "See here; such nastiness! This is yet
+another devil. He looks like the father of the little ones."
+
+Ivan still lives, and people flock to his kingdom. His brothers come to
+him and he feeds them.
+
+To every one who comes to him and says, "Give us food," he replies:
+"Very well; you are welcome. We have plenty of everything."
+
+There is only one unchangeable custom observed in Ivan's kingdom: The
+man with toil-hardened hands is always given a seat at the table, while
+the possessor of soft white hands must be contented with what is left.
+
+
+
+
+A LOST OPPORTUNITY.
+
+     "Then came Peter to Him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother
+     sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" . . . .
+     "So likewise shall My heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye
+     from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their
+     trespasses."--ST. MATTHEW xviii., 21-35.
+
+In a certain village there lived a peasant by the name of Ivan
+Scherbakoff. He was prosperous, strong, and vigorous, and was considered
+the hardest worker in the whole village. He had three sons, who
+supported themselves by their own labor. The eldest was married, the
+second about to be married, and the youngest took care of the horses and
+occasionally attended to the plowing.
+
+The peasant's wife, Ivanovna, was intelligent and industrious, while her
+daughter-in-law was a simple, quiet soul, but a hard worker.
+
+There was only one idle person in the household, and that was Ivan's
+father, a very old man who for seven years had suffered from asthma, and
+who spent the greater part of his time lying on the brick oven.
+
+Ivan had plenty of everything--three horses, with one colt, a cow
+with calf, and fifteen sheep. The women made the men's clothes, and in
+addition to performing all the necessary household labor, also worked in
+the field; while the men's industry was confined altogether to the farm.
+
+What was left of the previous year's supply of provisions was ample for
+their needs, and they sold a quantity of oats sufficient to pay their
+taxes and other expenses.
+
+Thus life went smoothly for Ivan.
+
+The peasant's next-door neighbor was a son of Gordey Ivanoff, called
+"Gavryl the Lame." It once happened that Ivan had a quarrel with him;
+but while old man Gordey was yet alive, and Ivan's father was the head
+of the household, the two peasants lived as good neighbors should.
+If the women of one house required the use of a sieve or pail, they
+borrowed it from the inmates of the other house. The same condition of
+affairs existed between the men. They lived more like one family, the
+one dividing his possessions with the other, and perfect harmony reigned
+between the two families.
+
+If a stray calf or cow invaded the garden of one of the farmers, the
+other willingly drove it away, saying: "Be careful, neighbor, that your
+stock does not again stray into my garden; we should put a fence up."
+In the same way they had no secrets from each other. The doors of their
+houses and barns had neither bolts nor locks, so sure were they of
+each other's honesty. Not a shadow of suspicion darkened their daily
+intercourse.
+
+Thus lived the old people.
+
+In time the younger members of the two households started farming. It
+soon became apparent that they would not get along as peacefully as the
+old people had done, for they began quarrelling without the slightest
+provocation.
+
+A hen belonging to Ivan's daughter-in-law commenced laying eggs, which
+the young woman collected each morning, intending to keep them for the
+Easter holidays. She made daily visits to the barn, where, under an old
+wagon, she was sure to find the precious egg.
+
+One day the children frightened the hen and she flew over their
+neighbor's fence and laid her egg in their garden.
+
+Ivan's daughter-in-law heard the hen cackling, but said: "I am very busy
+just at present, for this is the eve of a holy day, and I must clean and
+arrange this room. I will go for the egg later on."
+
+When evening came, and she had finished her task, she went to the barn,
+and as usual looked under the old wagon, expecting to find an egg. But,
+alas! no egg was visible in the accustomed place.
+
+Greatly disappointed, she returned to the house and inquired of her
+mother-in-law and the other members of the family if they had taken it.
+"No," they said, "we know nothing of it."
+
+Taraska, the youngest brother-in-law, coming in soon after, she also
+inquired of him if he knew anything about the missing egg. "Yes,"
+he replied; "your pretty, crested hen laid her egg in our neighbors'
+garden, and after she had finished cackling she flew back again over the
+fence."
+
+The young woman, greatly surprised on hearing this, turned and looked
+long and seriously at the hen, which was sitting with closed eyes beside
+the rooster in the chimney-corner. She asked the hen where it laid the
+egg. At the sound of her voice it simply opened and closed its eyes, but
+could make no answer.
+
+She then went to the neighbors' house, where she was met by an old
+woman, who said: "What do you want, young woman?"
+
+Ivan's daughter-in-law replied: "You see, babushka [grandmother], my hen
+flew into your yard this morning. Did she not lay an egg there?"
+
+"We did not see any," the old woman replied; "we have our own hens--God
+be praised!--and they have been laying for this long time. We hunt
+only for the eggs our own hens lay, and have no use for the eggs other
+people's hens lay. Another thing I want to tell you, young woman: we do
+not go into other people's yards to look for eggs."
+
+Now this speech greatly angered the young woman, and she replied in the
+same spirit in which she had been spoken to, only using much stronger
+language and speaking at greater length.
+
+The neighbor replied in the same angry manner, and finally the women
+began to abuse each other and call vile names. It happened that old
+Ivan's wife, on her way to the well for water, heard the dispute, and
+joined the others, taking her daughter-in-law's part.
+
+Gavryl's housekeeper, hearing the noise, could not resist the temptation
+to join the rest and to make her voice heard. As soon as she appeared on
+the scene, she, too, began to abuse her neighbor, reminding her of many
+disagreeable things which had happened (and many which had not happened)
+between them. She became so infuriated during her denunciations that she
+lost all control of herself, and ran around like some mad creature.
+
+Then all the women began to shout at the same time, each trying to
+say two words to another's one, and using the vilest language in the
+quarreller's vocabulary.
+
+"You are such and such," shouted one of the women. "You are a thief, a
+schlukha [a mean, dirty, low creature]; your father-in-law is even now
+starving, and you have no shame. You beggar, you borrowed my sieve and
+broke it. You made a large hole in it, and did not buy me another."
+
+"You have our scale-beam," cried another woman, "and must give it back
+to me;" whereupon she seized the scale-beam and tried to remove it from
+the shoulders of Ivan's wife.
+
+In the melee which followed they upset the pails of water. They tore the
+covering from each other's head, and a general fight ensued.
+
+Gavryl's wife had by this time joined in the fracas, and he, crossing
+the field and seeing the trouble, came to her rescue.
+
+Ivan and his son, seeing that their womenfolk were being badly used,
+jumped into the midst of the fray, and a fearful fight followed.
+
+Ivan was the most powerful peasant in all the country round, and it
+did not take him long to disperse the crowd, for they flew in all
+directions. During the progress of the fight Ivan tore out a large
+quantity of Gavryl's beard.
+
+By this time a large crowd of peasants had collected, and it was with
+the greatest difficulty that they persuaded the two families to stop
+quarrelling.
+
+This was the beginning.
+
+Gavryl took the portion of his beard which Ivan had torn out, and,
+wrapping it in a paper, went to the volostnoye (moujiks' court) and
+entered a complaint against Ivan.
+
+Holding up the hair, he said, "I did not grow this for that bear Ivan to
+tear out!"
+
+Gavryl's wife went round among the neighbors, telling them that they
+must not repeat what she told them, but that she and her husband were
+going to get the best of Ivan, and that he was to be sent to Siberia.
+
+And so the quarrelling went on.
+
+The poor old grandfather, sick with asthma and lying on the brick oven
+all the time, tried from the first to dissuade them from quarrelling,
+and begged of them to live in peace; but they would not listen to his
+good advice. He said to them: "You children are making a great fuss and
+much trouble about nothing. I beg of you to stop and think of what a
+little thing has caused all this trouble. It has arisen from only one
+egg. If our neighbors' children picked it up, it is all right. God bless
+them! One egg is of but little value, and without it God will supply
+sufficient for all our needs."
+
+Ivan's daughter-in-law here interposed and said, "But they called us
+vile names."
+
+The old grandfather again spoke, saying: "Well, even if they did call
+you bad names, it would have been better to return good for evil, and
+by your example show them how to speak better. Such conduct on your part
+would have been best for all concerned." He continued: "Well, you had a
+fight, you wicked people. Such things sometimes happen, but it would
+be better if you went afterward and asked forgiveness and buried your
+grievances out of sight. Scatter them to the four winds of heaven, for
+if you do not do so it will be the worse for you in the end."
+
+The younger members of the family, still obstinate, refused to profit
+by the old man's advice, and declared he was not right, and that he only
+liked to grumble in his old-fashioned way.
+
+Ivan refused to go to his neighbor, as the grandfather wished, saying:
+"I did not tear out Gavryl's beard. He did it himself, and his son tore
+my shirt and trousers into shreds."
+
+Ivan entered suit against Gavryl. He first went to the village justice,
+and not getting satisfaction from him he carried his case to the village
+court.
+
+While the neighbors were wrangling over the affair, each suing the
+other, it happened that a perch-bolt from Gavryl's wagon was lost; and
+the women of Gavryl's household accused Ivan's son of stealing it.
+
+They said: "We saw him in the night-time pass by our window, on his way
+to where the wagon was standing." "And my kumushka [sponsor]," said one
+of them, "told me that Ivan's son had offered it for sale at the kabak
+[tavern]."
+
+This accusation caused them again to go into court for a settlement of
+their grievances.
+
+While the heads of the families were trying to have their troubles
+settled in court, their home quarrels were constant, and frequently
+resulted in hand-to-hand encounters. Even the little children followed
+the example of their elders and quarrelled incessantly.
+
+The women, when they met on the riverbank to do the family washing,
+instead of attending to their work passed the time in abusing each
+other, and not infrequently they came to blows.
+
+At first the male members of the families were content with accusing
+each other of various crimes, such as stealing and like meannesses. But
+the trouble in this mild form did not last long.
+
+They soon resorted to other measures. They began to appropriate one
+another's things without asking permission, while various articles
+disappeared from both houses and could not be found. This was done out
+of revenge.
+
+This example being set by the men, the women and children also followed,
+and life soon became a burden to all who took part in the strife.
+
+Ivan Scherbakoff and "Gavryl the Lame" at last laid their trouble before
+the mir (village meeting), in addition to having been in court and
+calling on the justice of the peace. Both of the latter had grown tired
+of them and their incessant wrangling. One time Gavryl would succeed in
+having Ivan fined, and if he was not able to pay it he would be locked
+up in the cold dreary prison for days. Then it would be Ivan's turn to
+get Gavryl punished in like manner, and the greater the injury the one
+could do the other the more delight he took in it.
+
+The success of either in having the other punished only served to
+increase their rage against each other, until they were like mad dogs in
+their warfare.
+
+If anything went wrong with one of them he immediately accused his
+adversary of conspiring to ruin him, and sought revenge without stopping
+to inquire into the rights of the case.
+
+When the peasants went into court, and had each other fined and
+imprisoned, it did not soften their hearts in the least. They would only
+taunt one another on such occasions, saying: "Never mind; I will repay
+you for all this."
+
+This state of affairs lasted for six years.
+
+Ivan's father, the sick old man, constantly repeated his good advice. He
+would try to arouse their conscience by saying: "What are you doing, my
+children? Can you not throw off all these troubles, pay more attention
+to your business, and suppress your anger against your neighbors? There
+is no use in your continuing to live in this way, for the more enraged
+you become against each other the worse it is for you."
+
+Again was the wise advice of the old man rejected.
+
+At the beginning of the seventh year of the existence of the feud it
+happened that a daughter-in-law of Ivan's was present at a marriage. At
+the wedding feast she openly accused Gavryl of stealing a horse. Gavryl
+was intoxicated at the time and was in no mood to stand the insult, so
+in retaliation he struck the woman a terrific blow, which confined her
+to her bed for more than a week. The woman being in delicate health, the
+worst results were feared.
+
+Ivan, glad of a fresh opportunity to harass his neighbor, lodged a
+formal complaint before the district-attorney, hoping to rid himself
+forever of Gavryl by having him sent to Siberia.
+
+On examining the complaint the district-attorney would not consider it,
+as by that time the injured woman was walking about and as well as ever.
+
+Thus again Ivan was disappointed in obtaining his revenge, and, not
+being satisfied with the district-attorney's decision, had the case
+transferred to the court, where he used all possible means to push his
+suit. To secure the favor of the starshina (village mayor) he made him
+a present of half a gallon of sweet vodki; and to the mayor's pisar
+(secretary) also he gave presents. By this means he succeeded in
+securing a verdict against Gavryl. The sentence was that Gavryl was to
+receive twenty lashes on his bare back, and the punishment was to be
+administered in the yard which surrounded the court-house.
+
+When Ivan heard the sentence read he looked triumphantly at Gavryl to
+see what effect it would produce on him. Gavryl turned very white on
+hearing that he was to be treated with such indignity, and turning his
+back on the assembly left the room without uttering a word.
+
+Ivan followed him out, and as he reached his horse he heard Gavryl
+saying: "Very well; my spine will burn from the lashes, but something
+will burn with greater fierceness in Ivan's household before long."
+
+Ivan, on hearing these words, instantly returned to the court, and going
+up to the judges said: "Oh! just judges, he threatens to burn my house
+and all it contains."
+
+A messenger was immediately sent in search of Gavryl, who was soon found
+and again brought into the presence of the judges.
+
+"Is it true," they asked, "that you said you would burn Ivan's house and
+all it contained?"
+
+Gavryl replied: "I did not say anything of the kind. You may give me as
+many lashes as you please--that is, if you have the power to do so.
+It seems to me that I alone have to suffer for the truth, while he,"
+pointing to Ivan, "is allowed to do and say what he pleases." Gavryl
+wished to say something more, but his lips trembled, and the words
+refused to come; so in silence he turned his face toward the wall.
+
+The sight of so much suffering moved even the judges to pity, and,
+becoming alarmed at Gavryl's continued silence, they said, "He may do
+both his neighbor and himself some frightful injury."
+
+"See here, my brothers," said one feeble old judge, looking at Ivan and
+Gavryl as he spoke, "I think you had better try to arrange this matter
+peaceably. You, brother Gavryl, did wrong to strike a woman who was in
+delicate health. It was a lucky thing for you that God had mercy on
+you and that the woman did not die, for if she had I know not what dire
+misfortune might have overtaken you! It will not do either of you any
+good to go on living as you are at present. Go, Gavryl, and make friends
+with Ivan; I am sure he will forgive you, and we will set aside the
+verdict just given."
+
+The secretary on hearing this said: "It is impossible to do this on the
+present case. According to Article 117 this matter has gone too far to
+be settled peaceably now, as the verdict has been rendered and must be
+enforced."
+
+But the judges would not listen to the secretary, saying to him: "You
+talk altogether too much. You must remember that the first thing is to
+fulfill God's command to 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' and all will be
+well with you."
+
+Thus with kind words the judges tried to reconcile the two peasants.
+Their words fell on stony ground, however, for Gavryl would not listen
+to them.
+
+"I am fifty years old," said Gavryl, "and have a son married, and never
+from my birth has the lash been applied to my back; but now this bear
+Ivan has secured a verdict against me which condemns me to receive
+twenty lashes, and I am forced to bow to this decision and suffer the
+shame of a public beating. Well, he will have cause to remember this."
+
+At this Gavryl's voice trembled and he stopped speaking, and turning his
+back on the judges took his departure.
+
+It was about ten versts' distance from the court to the homes of the
+neighbors, and this Ivan travelled late. The women had already gone
+out for the cattle. He unharnessed his horse and put everything in its
+place, and then went into the izba (room), but found no one there.
+
+The men had not yet returned from their work in the field and the women
+had gone to look for the cattle, so that all about the place was quiet.
+Going into the room, Ivan seated himself on a wooden bench and soon
+became lost in thought. He remembered how, when Gavryl first heard the
+sentence which had been passed upon him, he grew very pale, and turned
+his face to the wall, all the while remaining silent.
+
+Ivan's heart ached when he thought of the disgrace which he had been the
+means of bringing upon Gavryl, and he wondered how he would feel if the
+same sentence had been passed upon him. His thoughts were interrupted by
+the coughing of his father, who was lying on the oven.
+
+The old man, on seeing Ivan, came down off the oven, and slowly
+approaching his son seated himself on the bench beside him, looking at
+him as though ashamed. He continued to cough as he leaned on the table
+and said, "Well, did they sentence him?"
+
+"Yes, they sentenced him to receive twenty lashes," replied Ivan.
+
+On hearing this the old man sorrowfully shook his head, and said: "This
+is very bad, Ivan, and what is the meaning of it all? It is indeed
+very bad, but not so bad for Gavryl as for yourself. Well, suppose his
+sentence IS carried out, and he gets the twenty lashes, what will it
+benefit you?"
+
+"He will not again strike a woman," Ivan replied.
+
+"What is it he will not do? He does not do anything worse than what you
+are constantly doing!"
+
+This conversation enraged Ivan, and he shouted: "Well, what did he do?
+He beat a woman nearly to death, and even now he threatens to burn my
+house! Must I bow to him for all this?"
+
+The old man sighed deeply as he said: "You, Ivan, are strong and free to
+go wherever you please, while I have been lying for years on the oven.
+You think that you know everything and that I do not know anything. No!
+you are still a child, and as such you cannot see that a kind of madness
+controls your actions and blinds your sight. The sins of others are ever
+before you, while you resolutely keep your own behind your back. I know
+that what Gavryl did was wrong, but if he alone should do wrong there
+would be no evil in the world. Do you think that all the evil in the
+world is the work of one man alone? No! it requires two persons to work
+much evil in the world. You see only the bad in Gavryl's character, but
+you are blind to the evil that is in your own nature. If he alone were
+bad and you good, then there would be no wrong."
+
+The old man, after a pause, continued: "Who tore Gavryl's beard? Who
+destroyed his heaps of rye? Who dragged him into court?--and yet you
+try to put all the blame on his shoulders. You are behaving very badly
+yourself, and for that reason you are wrong. I did not act in such a
+manner, and certainly I never taught you to do so. I lived in peace with
+Gavryl's father all the time we were neighbors. We were always the best
+of friends. If he was without flour his wife would come to me and say,
+'Diadia Frol [Grandfather], we need flour.' I would then say: 'My good
+woman, go to the warehouse and take as much as you want.' If he had no
+one to care for his horses I would say, 'Go, Ivanushka [diminutive of
+Ivan], and help him to care for them.' If I required anything I would go
+to him and say, 'Grandfather Gordey, I need this or that,' and he would
+always reply, 'Take just whatever you want.' By this means we passed an
+easy and peaceful life. But what is your life compared with it? As the
+soldiers fought at Plevna, so are you and Gavryl fighting all the time,
+only that your battles are far more disgraceful than that fought at
+Plevna."
+
+The old man went on: "And you call this living! and what a sin it
+all is! You are a peasant, and the head of the house; therefore, the
+responsibility of the trouble rests with you. What an example you set
+your wife and children by constantly quarrelling with your neighbor!
+Only a short time since your little boy, Taraska, was cursing his aunt
+Arina, and his mother only laughed at it, saying, 'What a bright child
+he is!' Is that right? You are to blame for all this. You should think
+of the salvation of your soul. Is that the way to do it? You say one
+unkind word to me and I will reply with two. You will give me one slap
+in the face, and I will retaliate with two slaps. No, my son; Christ did
+not teach us foolish people to act in such a way. If any one should say
+an unkind word to you it is better not to answer at all; but if you
+do reply do it kindly, and his conscience will accuse him, and he will
+regret his unkindness to you. This is the way Christ taught us to live.
+He tells us that if a person smite us on the one cheek we should offer
+unto him the other. That is Christ's command to us, and we should follow
+it. You should therefore subdue your pride. Am I not right?"
+
+Ivan remained silent, but his father's words had sunk deep into his
+heart.
+
+The old man coughed and continued: "Do you think Christ thought us
+wicked? Did he not die that we might be saved? Now you think only of
+this earthly life. Are you better or worse for thinking alone of it? Are
+you better or worse for having begun that Plevna battle? Think of your
+expense at court and the time lost in going back and forth, and what
+have you gained? Your sons have reached manhood, and are able now to
+work for you. You are therefore at liberty to enjoy life and be happy.
+With the assistance of your children you could reach a high state of
+prosperity. But now your property instead of increasing is gradually
+growing less, and why? It is the result of your pride. When it becomes
+necessary for you and your boys to go to the field to work, your enemy
+instead summons you to appear at court or before some kind of judicial
+person. If you do not plow at the proper time and sow at the proper time
+mother earth will not yield up her products, and you and your children
+will be left destitute. Why did your oats fail this year? When did
+you sow them? Were you not quarrelling with your neighbor instead of
+attending to your work? You have just now returned from the town, where
+you have been the means of having your neighbor humiliated. You have
+succeeded in getting him sentenced, but in the end the punishment will
+fall on your own shoulders. Oh! my child, it would be better for you
+to attend to your work on the farm and train your boys to become good
+farmers and honest men. If any one offend you forgive him for Christ's
+sake, and then prosperity will smile on your work and a light and happy
+feeling will fill your heart."
+
+Ivan still remained silent.
+
+The old father in a pleading voice continued: "Take an old man's advice.
+Go and harness your horse, drive back to the court, and withdraw all
+these complaints against your neighbor. To-morrow go to him, offer to
+make peace in Christ's name, and invite him to your house. It will be
+a holy day (the birth of the Virgin Mary). Get out the samovar and
+have some vodki, and over both forgive and forget each other's sins,
+promising not to transgress in the future, and advise your women and
+children to do the same."
+
+Ivan heaved a deep sigh but felt easier in his heart, as he thought:
+"The old man speaks the truth;" yet he was in doubt as to how he would
+put his father's advice into practice.
+
+The old man, surmising his uncertainty, said to Ivan: "Go, Ivanushka; do
+not delay. Extinguish the fire in the beginning, before it grows large,
+for then it may be impossible."
+
+Ivan's father wished to say more to him, but was prevented by the
+arrival of the women, who came into the room chattering like so many
+magpies. They had already heard of Gavryl's sentence, and of how he
+threatened to set fire to Ivan's house. They found out all about it, and
+in telling it to their neighbors added their own versions of the
+story, with the usual exaggeration. Meeting in the pasture-ground, they
+proceeded to quarrel with Gavryl's women. They related how the latter's
+daughter-in-law had threatened to secure the influence of the manager of
+a certain noble's estate in behalf of his friend Gavryl; also that the
+school-teacher was writing a petition to the Czar himself against Ivan,
+explaining in detail his theft of the perchbolt and partial destruction
+of Gavryl's garden--declaring that half of Ivan's land was to be given
+to them.
+
+Ivan listened calmly to their stories, but his anger was soon aroused
+once more, when he abandoned his intention of making peace with Gavryl.
+
+As Ivan was always busy about the household, he did not stop to speak to
+the wrangling women, but immediately left the room, directing his steps
+toward the barn. Before getting through with his work the sun had set
+and the boys had returned from their plowing. Ivan met them and asked
+about their work, helping them to put things in order and leaving the
+broken horse-collar aside to be repaired. He intended to perform some
+other duties, but it became too dark and he was obliged to leave them
+till the next day. He fed the cattle, however, and opened the gate that
+Taraska might take his horses to pasture for the night, after which he
+closed it again and went into the house for his supper.
+
+By this time he had forgotten all about Gavryl and what his father had
+said to him. Yet, just as he touched the door-knob, he heard sounds of
+quarrelling proceeding from his neighbor's house.
+
+"What do I want with that devil?" shouted Gavryl to some one. "He
+deserves to be killed!"
+
+Ivan stopped and listened for a moment, when he shook his head
+threateningly and entered the room. When he came in, the apartment was
+already lighted. His daughter-in-law was working with her loom, while
+the old woman was preparing the supper. The eldest son was twining
+strings for his lapti (peasant's shoes made of strips of bark from the
+linden-tree). The other son was sitting by the table reading a book. The
+room presented a pleasant appearance, everything being in order and the
+inmates apparently gay and happy--the only dark shadow being that cast
+over the household by Ivan's trouble with his neighbor.
+
+Ivan came in very cross, and, angrily throwing aside a cat which lay
+sleeping on the bench, cursed the women for having misplaced a pail.
+He looked very sad and serious, and, seating himself in a corner of the
+room, proceeded to repair the horse-collar. He could not forget Gavryl,
+however--the threatening words he had used in the court-room and those
+which Ivan had just heard.
+
+Presently Taraska came in, and after having his supper, put on his
+sheepskin coat, and, taking some bread with him, returned to watch over
+his horses for the night. His eldest brother wished to accompany him,
+but Ivan himself arose and went with him as far as the porch. The night
+was dark and cloudy and a strong wind was blowing, which produced a
+peculiar whistling sound that was most unpleasant to the ear. Ivan
+helped his son to mount his horse, which, followed by a colt, started
+off on a gallop.
+
+Ivan stood for a few moments looking around him and listening to the
+clatter of the horse's hoofs as Taraska rode down the village street.
+He heard him meet other boys on horseback, who rode quite as well as
+Taraska, and soon all were lost in the darkness.
+
+Ivan remained standing by the gate in a gloomy mood, as he was unable
+to banish from his mind the harassing thoughts of Gavryl, which the
+latter's menacing words had inspired: "Something will burn with greater
+fierceness in Ivan's household before long."
+
+"He is so desperate," thought Ivan, "that he may set fire to my house
+regardless of the danger to his own. At present everything is dry, and
+as the wind is so high he may sneak from the back of his own building,
+start a fire, and get away unseen by any of us.
+
+"He may burn and steal without being found out, and thus go unpunished. I
+wish I could catch him."
+
+This thought so worried Ivan that he decided not to return to his house,
+but went out and stood on the street-corner.
+
+"I guess," thought Ivan to himself, "I will take a walk around the
+premises and examine everything carefully, for who knows what he may be
+tempted to do?"
+
+Ivan moved very cautiously round to the back of his buildings, not
+making the slightest noise, and scarcely daring to breathe. Just as he
+reached a corner of the house he looked toward the fence, and it seemed
+to him that he saw something moving, and that it was slowly creeping
+toward the corner of the house opposite to where he was standing. He
+stepped back quickly and hid himself in the shadow of the building. Ivan
+stood and listened, but all was quiet. Not a sound could be heard but
+the moaning of the wind through the branches of the trees, and the
+rustling of the leaves as it caught them up and whirled them in all
+directions. So dense was the darkness that it was at first impossible
+for Ivan to see more than a few feet beyond where he stood.
+
+After a time, however, his sight becoming accustomed to the gloom, he
+was enabled to see for a considerable distance. The plow and his other
+farming implements stood just where he had placed them. He could see
+also the opposite corner of the house.
+
+He looked in every direction, but no one was in sight, and he thought
+to himself that his imagination must have played him some trick, leading
+him to believe that some one was moving when there really was no one
+there.
+
+Still, Ivan was not satisfied, and decided to make a further examination
+of the premises. As on the previous occasion, he moved so very
+cautiously that he could not hear even the sound of his own footsteps.
+He had taken the precaution to remove his shoes, that he might step the
+more noiselessly. When he reached the corner of the barn it again seemed
+to him that he saw something moving, this time near the plow; but it
+quickly disappeared. By this time Ivan's heart was beating very fast,
+and he was standing in a listening attitude when a sudden flash of light
+illumined the spot, and he could distinctly see the figure of a man
+seated on his haunches with his back turned toward him, and in the act
+of lighting a bunch of straw which he held in his hand! Ivan's heart
+began to beat yet faster, and he became terribly excited, walking up and
+down with rapid strides, but without making a noise.
+
+Ivan said: "Well, now, he cannot get away, for he will be caught in the
+very act."
+
+Ivan had taken a few more steps when suddenly a bright light flamed
+up, but not in the same spot in which he had seen the figure of the man
+sitting. Gavryl had lighted the straw, and running to the barn held it
+under the edge of the roof, which began to burn fiercely; and by the
+light of the fire he could distinctly see his neighbor standing.
+
+As an eagle springs at a skylark, so sprang Ivan at Gavryl, saying: "I
+will tear you into pieces! You shall not get away from me this time!"
+
+But "Gavryl the Lame," hearing footsteps, wrenched himself free from
+Ivan's grasp and ran like a hare past the buildings.
+
+Ivan, now terribly excited, shouted, "You shall not escape me!" and
+started in pursuit; but just as he reached him and was about to grasp
+the collar of his coat, Gavryl succeeded in jumping to one side, and
+Ivan's coat became entangled in something and he was thrown violently
+to the ground. Jumping quickly to his feet he shouted, "Karaool!
+derji!"(watch! catch!)
+
+While Ivan was regaining his feet Gavryl succeeded in reaching his
+house, but Ivan followed so quickly that he caught up with him before he
+could enter. Just as he was about to grasp him he was struck on the head
+with some hard substance. He had been hit on the temple as with a stone.
+The blow was struck by Gavryl, who had picked up an oaken stave, and
+with it gave Ivan a terrible blow on the head.
+
+Ivan was stunned, and bright sparks danced before his eyes, while he
+swayed from side to side like a drunken man, until finally all became
+dark and he sank to the ground unconscious.
+
+When he recovered his senses, Gavryl was nowhere to be seen, but all
+around him was as light as day. Strange sounds proceeded from the
+direction of his house, and turning his face that way he saw that his
+barns were on fire. The rear parts of both were already destroyed,
+and the flames were leaping toward the front. Fire, smoke, and bits of
+burning straw were being rapidly whirled by the high wind over to where
+his house stood, and he expected every moment to see it burst into
+flames.
+
+"What is this, brother?" Ivan cried out, as he beat his thighs with his
+hands. "I should have stopped to snatch the bunch of burning straw, and,
+throwing it on the ground, should have extinguished it with my feet!"
+
+Ivan tried to cry out and arouse his people, but his lips refused to
+utter a word. He next tried to run, but he could not move his feet, and
+his legs seemed to twist themselves around each other. After several
+attempts he succeeded in taking one or two steps, when he again began to
+stagger and gasp for breath. It was some moments before he made another
+attempt to move, but after considerable exertion he finally reached
+the barn, the rear of which was by this time entirely consumed; and
+the corner of his house had already caught fire. Dense volumes of smoke
+began to pour out of the room, which made it difficult to approach.
+
+A crowd of peasants had by this time gathered, but they found it
+impossible to save their homes, so they carried everything which they
+could to a place of safety. The cattle they drove into neighboring
+pastures and left some one to care for them.
+
+The wind carried the sparks from Ivan's house to Gavryl's, and it, too,
+took fire and was consumed. The wind continued to increase with great
+fury, and the flames spread to both sides of the street, until in a very
+short time more than half the village was burned.
+
+The members of Ivan's household had great difficulty in getting out of
+the burning building, but the neighbors rescued the old man and
+carried him to a place of safety, while the women escaped in only their
+night-clothes. Everything was burned, including the cattle and all the
+farm implements. The women lost their trunks, which were filled with
+quantities of clothing, the accumulation of years. The storehouse and
+all the provisions perished in the flames, not even the chickens being
+saved.
+
+Gavryl, however, more fortunate than Ivan, saved his cattle and a few
+other things.
+
+The village was burning all night.
+
+Ivan stood near his home, gazing sadly at the burning building, and
+he kept constantly repeating to himself: "I should have taken away the
+bunch of burning straw, and have stamped out the fire with my feet."
+
+But when he saw his home fall in a smouldering heap, in spite of the
+terrible heat he sprang into the midst of it and carried out a charred
+log. The women seeing him, and fearing that he would lose his life,
+called to him to come back, but he would not pay any attention to them
+and went a second time to get a log. Still weak from the terrible blow
+which Gavryl had given him, he was overcome by the heat, and fell into
+the midst of the burning mass. Fortunately, his eldest son saw him fall,
+and rushing into the fire succeeded in getting hold of him and carrying
+him out of it. Ivan's hair, beard, and clothing were burned entirely
+off. His hands were also frightfully injured, but he seemed indifferent
+to pain.
+
+"Grief drove him crazy," the people said.
+
+The fire was growing less, but Ivan still stood where he could see it,
+and kept repeating to himself, "I should have taken," etc.
+
+The morning after the fire the starosta (village elder) sent his son to
+Ivan to tell him that the old man, his father, was dying, and wanted to
+see him to bid him good-bye.
+
+In his grief Ivan had forgotten all about his father, and could not
+understand what was being said to him. In a dazed way he asked: "What
+father? Whom does he want?"
+
+The elder's son again repeated his father's message to Ivan. "Your
+aged parent is at our house dying, and he wants to see you and bid you
+good-bye. Won't you go now, uncle Ivan?" the boy said.
+
+Finally Ivan understood, and followed the elder's son.
+
+When Ivan's father was carried from the oven, he was slightly injured
+by a big bunch of burning straw falling on him just as he reached the
+street. To insure his safety he was removed to the elder's house, which
+stood a considerable distance from his late home, and where it was not
+likely that the fire would reach it.
+
+When Ivan arrived at the elder's home he found only the latter's wife
+and children, who were all seated on the brick oven. The old man was
+lying on a bench holding a lighted candle in his hand (a Russian custom
+when a person is dying). Hearing a noise, he turned his face toward the
+door, and when he saw it was his son he tried to move. He motioned for
+Ivan to come nearer, and when he did so he whispered in a trembling
+voice: "Well, Ivanushka, did I not tell you before what would be the
+result of this sad affair? Who set the village on fire?"
+
+"He, he, batiushka [little father]; he did it. I caught him. He placed
+the bunch of burning straw to the barn in my presence. Instead of
+running after him, I should have snatched the bunch of burning straw
+and throwing it on the ground have stamped it out with my feet; and then
+there would have been no fire."
+
+"Ivan," said the old man, "death is fast approaching me, and remember
+that you also will have to die. Who did this dreadful thing? Whose is
+the sin?"
+
+Ivan gazed at the noble face of his dying father and was silent. His
+heart was too full for utterance.
+
+"In the presence of God," the old man continued, "whose is the sin?"
+
+It was only now that the truth began to dawn upon Ivan's mind, and that
+he realized how foolish he had acted. He sobbed bitterly, and fell on
+his knees before his father, and, crying like a child, said:
+
+"My dear father, forgive me, for Christ's sake, for I am guilty before
+God and before you!"
+
+The old man transferred the lighted candle from his right hand to the
+left, and, raising the former to his forehead, tried to make the sign of
+the cross, but owing to weakness was unable to do so.
+
+"Glory to Thee, O Lord! Glory to Thee!" he exclaimed; and turning his
+dim eyes toward his son, he said: "See here, Ivanushka! Ivanushka, my
+dear son!"
+
+"What, my dear father?" Ivan asked.
+
+"What are you going to do," replied the old man, "now that you have no
+home?"
+
+Ivan cried and said: "I do not know how we shall live now."
+
+The old man closed his eyes and made a movement with his lips, as if
+gathering his feeble strength for a final effort. Slowly opening his
+eyes, he whispered:
+
+"Should you live according to God's commands you will be happy and
+prosperous again."
+
+The old man was now silent for awhile and then, smiling sadly, he
+continued:
+
+"See here, Ivanushka, keep silent concerning this trouble, and do not
+tell who set the village on fire. Forgive one sin of your neighbor's,
+and God will forgive two of yours."
+
+Grasping the candle with both hands, Ivan's father heaved a deep sigh,
+and, stretching himself out on his back, yielded up the ghost.
+
+*****
+
+Ivan for once accepted his father's advice. He did not betray Gavryl,
+and no one ever learned the origin of the fire.
+
+Ivan's heart became more kindly disposed toward his old enemy, feeling
+that much of the fault in connection with this sad affair rested with
+himself.
+
+Gavryl was greatly surprised that Ivan did not denounce him before all
+the villagers, and at first he stood in much fear of him, but he soon
+afterward overcame this feeling.
+
+The two peasants ceased to quarrel, and their families followed their
+example. While they were building new houses, both families lived
+beneath the same roof, and when they moved into their respective homes,
+Ivan and Gavryl lived on as good terms as their fathers had done before
+them.
+
+Ivan remembered his dying father's command, and took deeply to heart
+the evident warning of God that A FIRE SHOULD BE EXTINGUISHED IN THE
+BEGINNING. If any one wronged him he did not seek revenge, but instead
+made every effort to settle the matter peaceably. If any one spoke to
+him unkindly, he did not answer in the same way, but replied softly, and
+tried to persuade the person not to speak evil. He taught the women and
+children of his household to do the same.
+
+Ivan Scherbakoff was now a reformed man.
+
+He lived well and peacefully, and again became prosperous.
+
+Let us, therefore, have peace, live in brotherly love and kindness, and
+we will be happy.
+
+
+
+
+"POLIKUSHKA;"
+
+OR, The Lot of a Wicked Court Servant.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Polikey was a court man--one of the staff of servants belonging to the
+court household of a boyarinia (lady of the nobility).
+
+He held a very insignificant position on the estate, and lived in a
+rather poor, small house with his wife and children.
+
+The house was built by the deceased nobleman whose widow he still
+continued to serve, and may be described as follows: The four walls
+surrounding the one izba (room) were built of stone, and the interior
+was ten yards square. A Russian stove stood in the centre, around which
+was a free passage. Each corner was fenced off as a separate inclosure
+to the extent of several feet, and the one nearest to the door (the
+smallest of all) was known as "Polikey's corner." Elsewhere in the room
+stood the bed (with quilt, sheet, and cotton pillows), the cradle (with
+a baby lying therein), and the three-legged table, on which the meals
+were prepared and the family washing was done. At the latter also
+Polikey was at work on the preparation of some materials for use in his
+profession--that of an amateur veterinary surgeon. A calf, some hens,
+the family clothes and household utensils, together with seven persons,
+filled the little home to the utmost of its capacity. It would indeed
+have been almost impossible for them to move around had it not been for
+the convenience of the stove, on which some of them slept at night, and
+which served as a table in the day-time.
+
+It seemed hard to realize how so many persons managed to live in such
+close quarters.
+
+Polikey's wife, Akulina, did the washing, spun and wove, bleached her
+linen, cooked and baked, and found time also to quarrel and gossip with
+her neighbors.
+
+The monthly allowance of food which they received from the noblewoman's
+house was amply sufficient for the whole family, and there was always
+enough meal left to make mash for the cow. Their fuel they got free, and
+likewise the food for the cattle. In addition they were given a small
+piece of land on which to raise vegetables. They had a cow, a calf, and
+a number of chickens to care for.
+
+Polikey was employed in the stables to take care of two stallions, and,
+when necessary, to bleed the horses and cattle and clean their hoofs.
+
+In his treatment of the animals he used syringes, plasters, and various
+other remedies and appliances of his own invention. For these services
+he received whatever provisions were required by his family, and a
+certain sum of money--all of which would have been sufficient to enable
+them to live comfortably and even happily, if their hearts had not been
+filled with the shadow of a great sorrow.
+
+This shadow darkened the lives of the entire family.
+
+Polikey, while young, was employed in a horse-breeding establishment in
+a neighboring village. The head stableman was a notorious horse-thief,
+known far and wide as a great rogue, who, for his many misdeeds, was
+finally exiled to Siberia. Under his instruction Polikey underwent a
+course of training, and, being but a boy, was easily induced to perform
+many evil deeds. He became so expert in the various kinds of wickedness
+practiced by his teacher that, though he many times would gladly have
+abandoned his evil ways, he could not, owing to the great hold these
+early-formed habits had upon him. His father and mother died when he was
+but a child, and he had no one to point out to him the paths of virtue.
+
+In addition to his other numerous shortcomings, Polikey was fond of
+strong drink. He also had a habit of appropriating other people's
+property, when the opportunity offered of his doing so without being
+seen. Collar-straps, padlocks, perch-bolts, and things even of greater
+value belonging to others found their way with remarkable rapidity and
+in great quantities to Polikey's home. He did not, however, keep
+such things for his own use, but sold them whenever he could find a
+purchaser. His payment consisted chiefly of whiskey, though sometimes he
+received cash.
+
+This sort of employment, as his neighbors said, was both light and
+profitable; it required neither education nor labor. It had one
+drawback, however, which was calculated to reconcile his victims to
+their losses: Though he could for a time have all his needs supplied
+without expending either labor or money, there was always the
+possibility of his methods being discovered; and this result was sure to
+be followed by a long term of imprisonment. This impending danger made
+life a burden for Polikey and his family.
+
+Such a setback indeed very nearly happened to Polikey early in his
+career. He married while still young, and God gave him much happiness.
+His wife, who was a shepherd's daughter, was a strong, intelligent,
+hard-working woman. She bore him many children, each of whom was said to
+be better than the preceding one.
+
+Polikey still continued to steal, but once was caught with some small
+articles belonging to others in his possession. Among them was a pair
+of leather reins, the property of another peasant, who beat him severely
+and reported him to his mistress.
+
+From that time on Polikey was an object of suspicion, and he was twice
+again detected in similar escapades. By this time the people began to
+abuse him, and the clerk of the court threatened to recruit him into
+the army as a soldier (which is regarded by the peasants as a great
+punishment and disgrace). His noble mistress severely reprimanded him;
+his wife wept from grief for his downfall, and everything went from bad
+to worse.
+
+Polikey, notwithstanding his weakness, was a good-natured sort of man,
+but his love of strong drink had so overcome every moral instinct that
+at times he was scarcely responsible for his actions. This habit he
+vainly endeavored to overcome. It often happened that when he returned
+home intoxicated, his wife, losing all patience, roundly cursed him and
+cruelly beat him. At times he would cry like a child, and bemoan his
+fate, saying: "Unfortunate man that I am, what shall I do? LET MY EYES
+BURST INTO PIECES if I do not forever give up the vile habit! I will not
+again touch vodki."
+
+In spite of all his promises of reform, but a short period (perhaps a
+month) would elapse when Polikey would again mysteriously disappear from
+his home and be lost for several days on a spree.
+
+"From what source does he get the money he spends so freely?" the
+neighbors inquired of each other, as they sadly shook their heads.
+
+One of his most unfortunate exploits in the matter of stealing was in
+connection with a clock which belonged to the estate of his mistress.
+The clock stood in the private office of the noblewoman, and was so old
+as to have outlived its usefulness, and was simply kept as an heirloom.
+It so happened that Polikey went into the office one day when no one was
+present but himself, and, seeing the old clock, it seemed to possess
+a peculiar fascination for him, and he speedily transferred it to his
+person. He carried it to a town not far from the village, where he very
+readily found a purchaser.
+
+As if purposely to secure his punishment, it happened that the
+storekeeper to whom he sold it proved to be a relative of one of the
+court servants, and who, when he visited his friend on the next holiday,
+related all about his purchase of the clock.
+
+An investigation was immediately instituted, and all the details of
+Polikey's transaction were brought to light and reported to his noble
+mistress. He was called into her presence, and, when confronted with the
+story of the theft, broke down and confessed all. He fell on his knees
+before the noblewoman and plead with her for mercy. The kind-hearted
+lady lectured him about God, the salvation of his soul, and his future
+life. She talked to him also about the misery and disgrace he brought
+upon his family, and altogether so worked upon his feelings that he
+cried like a child. In conclusion his kind mistress said: "I will
+forgive you this time on the condition that you promise faithfully to
+reform, and never again to take what does not belong to you."
+
+Polikey, still weeping, replied: "I will never steal again in all my
+life, and if I break my promise may the earth open and swallow me up,
+and let my body be burned with red-hot irons!"
+
+Polikey returned to his home, and throwing himself on the oven spent the
+entire day weeping and repeating the promise made to his mistress.
+
+From that time on he was not again caught stealing, but his life became
+extremely sad, for he was regarded with suspicion by every one and
+pointed to as a thief.
+
+When the time came round for securing recruits for the army, all
+the peasants singled out Polikey as the first to be taken. The
+superintendent was especially anxious to get rid of him, and went to
+his mistress to induce her to have him sent away. The kind-hearted and
+merciful woman, remembering the peasant's repentance, refused to grant
+the superintendent's request, and told him he must take some other man
+in his stead.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+One evening Polikey was sitting on his bed beside the table, preparing
+some medicine for the cattle, when suddenly the door was thrown wide
+open, and Aksiutka, a young girl from the court, rushed in. Almost out
+of breath, she said: "My mistress has ordered you, Polikey Illitch [son
+of Ilia], to come up to the court at once!"
+
+The girl was standing and still breathing heavily from her late exertion
+as she continued: "Egor Mikhailovitch, the superintendent, has been
+to see our lady about having you drafted into the army, and, Polikey
+Illitch, your name was mentioned among others. Our lady has sent me to
+tell you to come up to the court immediately."
+
+As soon as Aksiutka had delivered her message she left the room in the
+same abrupt manner in which she had entered.
+
+Akulina, without saying a word, got up and brought her husband's boots
+to him. They were poor, worn-out things which some soldier had given
+him, and his wife did not glance at him as she handed them to him.
+
+"Are you going to change your shirt, Illitch?" she asked, at last.
+
+"No," replied Polikey.
+
+Akulina did not once look at him all the time he was putting on his
+boots and preparing to go to the court. Perhaps, after all, it was
+better that she did not do so. His face was very pale and his lips
+trembled. He slowly combed his hair and was about to depart without
+saying a word, when his wife stopped him to arrange the ribbon on his
+shirt, and, after toying a little with his coat, she put his hat on for
+him and he left the little home.
+
+Polikey's next-door neighbors were a joiner and his wife. A thin
+partition only separated the two families, and each could hear what the
+other said and did. Soon after Polikey's departure a woman was heard to
+say: "Well, Polikey Illitch, so your mistress has sent for you!"
+
+The voice was that of the joiner's wife on the other side of the
+partition. Akulina and the woman had quarrelled that morning about some
+trifling thing done by one of Polikey's children, and it afforded her
+the greatest pleasure to learn that her neighbor had been summoned into
+the presence of his noble mistress. She looked upon such a circumstance
+as a bad omen. She continued talking to herself and said: "Perhaps she
+wants to send him to the town to make some purchases for her household.
+I did not suppose she would select such a faithful man as you are to
+perform such a service for her. If it should prove that she DOES want to
+send you to the next town, just buy me a quarter-pound of tea. Will you,
+Polikey Illitch?"
+
+Poor Akulina, on hearing the joiner's wife talking so unkindly of her
+husband, could hardly suppress the tears, and, the tirade continuing,
+she at last became angry, and wished she could in some way punish her.
+
+Forgetting her neighbor's unkindness, her thoughts soon turned in
+another direction, and glancing at her sleeping children she said to
+herself that they might soon be orphans and she herself a soldier's
+widow. This thought greatly distressed her, and burying her face in her
+hands she seated herself on the bed, where several of her progeny were
+fast asleep. Presently a little voice interrupted her meditations by
+crying out, "Mamushka [little mother], you are crushing me," and the
+child pulled her nightdress from under her mother's arms.
+
+Akulina, with her head still resting on her hands, said: "Perhaps it
+would be better if we all should die. I only seem to have brought you
+into the world to suffer sorrow and misery."
+
+Unable longer to control her grief, she burst into violent weeping,
+which served to increase the amusement of the joiner's wife, who had
+not forgotten the morning's squabble, and she laughed loudly at her
+neighbor's woe.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+About half an hour had passed when the youngest child began to cry and
+Akulina arose to feed it. She had by this time ceased to weep, and after
+feeding the infant she again fell into her old position, with her face
+buried in her hands. She was very pale, but this only increased her
+beauty. After a time she raised her head, and staring at the burning
+candle she began to question herself as to why she had married, and as
+to the reason that the Czar required so many soldiers.
+
+Presently she heard steps outside, and knew that her husband was
+returning. She hurriedly wiped away the last traces of her tears as she
+arose to let him pass into the centre of the room.
+
+Polikey made his appearance with a look of triumph on his face, threw
+his hat on the bed, and hastily removed his coat; but not a word did he
+utter.
+
+Akulina, unable to restrain her impatience, asked, "Well, what did she
+want with you?"
+
+"Pshaw!" he replied, "it is very well known that Polikushka is
+considered the worst man in the village; but when it comes to business
+of importance, who is selected then? Why, Polikushka, of course."
+
+"What kind of business?" Akulina timidly inquired.
+
+But Polikey was in no hurry to answer her question. He lighted his pipe
+with a very imposing air, and spit several times on the floor before he
+replied.
+
+Still retaining his pompous manner, he said, "She has ordered me to
+go to a certain merchant in the town and collect a considerable sum of
+money."
+
+"You to collect money?" questioned Akulina.
+
+Polikey only shook his head and smiled significantly, saying:
+
+"'You,' the mistress said to me, 'are a man resting under a grave
+suspicion--a man who is considered unsafe to trust in any capacity; but
+I have faith in you, and will intrust you with this important business
+of mine in preference to any one else.'"
+
+Polikey related all this in a loud voice, so that his neighbor might
+hear what he had to say.
+
+"'You promised me to reform,' my noble mistress said to me, 'and I will
+be the first to show you how much faith I have in your promise. I want
+you to ride into town, and, going to the principal merchant there,
+collect a sum of money from him and bring it to me.' I said to my
+mistress: 'Everything you order shall be done. I will only too gladly
+obey your slightest wish.'
+
+"Then my mistress said: 'Do you understand, Polikey, that your future lot
+depends upon the faithful performance of this duty I impose upon you?'
+I replied: 'Yes, I understand everything, and feel that I will succeed in
+performing acceptably any task which you may impose upon me. I have been
+accused of every kind of evil deed that it is possible to charge a man
+with, but I have never done anything seriously wrong against you,
+your honor.' In this way I talked to our mistress until I succeeded in
+convincing her that my repentance was sincere, and she became greatly
+softened toward me, saying, 'If you are successful I will give you the
+first place at the court.'"
+
+"And how much money are you to collect?" inquired Akulina.
+
+"Fifteen hundred rubles," carelessly answered Polikey.
+
+Akulina sadly shook her head as she asked, "When are you to start?"
+
+"She ordered me to leave here to-morrow," Polikey replied. "'Take any
+horse you please,' she said. 'Come to the office, and I will see you
+there and wish you God-speed on your journey.'"
+
+"Glory to Thee, O Lord!" said Akulina, as she arose and made the sign
+of the cross. "God, I am sure, will bless you, Illitch," she added, in a
+whisper, so that the people on the other side of the partition could not
+hear what she said, all the while holding on to his sleeve. "Illitch,"
+she cried at last, excitedly, "for God's sake promise me that you will
+not touch a drop of vodki. Take an oath before God, and kiss the cross,
+so that I may be sure that you will not break your promise!"
+
+Polikey replied in most contemptuous tones: "Do you think I will dare to
+touch vodki when I shall have such a large sum of money in my care?"
+
+"Akulina, have a clean shirt ready for the morning," were his parting
+words for the night.
+
+So Polikey and his wife went to sleep in a happy frame of mind and full
+of bright dreams for the future.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Very early the next morning, almost before the stars had hidden
+themselves from view, there was seen standing before Polikey's home a
+low wagon, the same in which the superintendent himself used to ride;
+and harnessed to it was a large-boned, dark-brown mare, called for some
+unknown reason by the name of Baraban (drum). Aniutka, Polikey's
+eldest daughter, in spite of the heavy rain and the cold wind which was
+blowing, stood outside barefooted and held (not without some fear) the
+reins in ore hand, while with the other she endeavored to keep her green
+and yellow overcoat wound around her body, and also to hold Polikey's
+sheepskin coat.
+
+In the house there were the greatest noise and confusion. The morning
+was still so dark that the little daylight there was failed to penetrate
+through the broken panes of glass, the window being stuffed in many
+places with rags and paper to exclude the cold air.
+
+Akulina ceased from her cooking for a while and helped to get Polikey
+ready for the journey. Most of the children were still in bed, very
+likely as a protection against the cold, for Akulina had taken away the
+big overcoat which usually covered them and had substituted a shawl of
+her own. Polikey's shirt was all ready, nice and clean, but his shoes
+badly needed repairing, and this fact caused his devoted wife much
+anxiety. She took from her own feet the thick woollen stockings she was
+wearing, and gave them to Polikey. She then began to repair his shoes,
+patching up the holes so as to protect his feet from dampness.
+
+While this was going on he was sitting on the side of the bed with his
+feet dangling over the edge, and trying to turn the sash which confined
+his coat at the waist. He was anxious to look as clean as possible, and
+he declared his sash looked like a dirty rope.
+
+One of his daughters, enveloped in a sheepskin coat, was sent to a
+neighbor's house to borrow a hat.
+
+Within Polikey's home the greatest confusion reigned, for the court
+servants were constantly arriving with innumerable small orders which
+they wished Polikey to execute for them in town. One wanted needles,
+another tea, another tobacco, and last came the joiner's wife, who by
+this time had prepared her samovar, and, anxious to make up the quarrel
+of the previous day, brought the traveller a cup of tea.
+
+Neighbor Nikita refused the loan of the hat, so the old one had to be
+patched up for the occasion. This occupied some time, as there were many
+holes in it.
+
+Finally Polikey was all ready, and jumping on the wagon started on his
+journey, after first making the sign of the cross.
+
+At the last moment his little boy, Mishka, ran to the door, begging to
+be given a short ride; and then his little daughter, Mashka, appeared on
+the scene and pleaded that she, too, might have a ride, declaring that
+she would be quite warm enough without furs.
+
+Polikey stopped the horse on hearing the children, and Akulina placed
+them in the wagon, together with two others belonging to a neighbor--all
+anxious to have a short ride.
+
+As Akulina helped the little ones into the wagon she took occasion to
+remind Polikey of the solemn promise he had made her not to touch a drop
+of vodki during the journey.
+
+Polikey drove the children as far as the blacksmith's place, where he
+let them out of the wagon, telling them they must return home. He then
+arranged his clothing, and, setting his hat firmly on his head, started
+his horse on a trot.
+
+The two children, Mishka and Mashka, both barefooted, started running at
+such a rapid pace that a strange dog from another village, seeing them
+flying over the road, dropped his tail between his legs and ran home
+squealing.
+
+The weather was very cold, a sharp cutting wind blowing continuously;
+but this did not disturb Polikey, whose mind was engrossed with pleasant
+thoughts. As he rode through the wintry blasts he kept repeating to
+himself: "So I am the man they wanted to send to Siberia, and whom they
+threatened to enroll as a soldier--the same man whom every one abused,
+and said he was lazy, and who was pointed out as a thief and given the
+meanest work on the estate to do! Now I am going to receive a large sum
+of money, for which my mistress is sending me because she trusts me. I
+am also riding in the same wagon that the superintendent himself uses
+when he is riding as a representative of the court. I have the same
+harness, leather horse-collar, reins, and all the other gear."
+
+Polikey, filled with pride at thought of the mission with which he had
+been intrusted, drew himself up with an air of pride, and, fixing his
+old hat more firmly on his head, buttoned his coat tightly about him and
+urged his horse to greater speed.
+
+"Just to think," he continued; "I shall have in my possession three
+thousand half-rubles [the peasant manner of speaking of money so as to
+make it appear a larger sum than it really is], and will carry them in
+my bosom. If I wished to I might run away to Odessa instead of taking
+the money to my mistress. But no; I will not do that. I will surely
+carry the money straight to the one who has been kind enough to trust
+me."
+
+When Polikey reached the first kabak (tavern) he found that from long
+habit the mare was naturally turning her head toward it; but he would
+not allow her to stop, though money had been given him to purchase
+both food and drink. Striking the animal a sharp blow with the whip, he
+passed by the tavern. The performance was repeated when he reached the
+next kabak, which looked very inviting; but he resolutely set his face
+against entering, and passed on.
+
+About noon he arrived at his destination, and getting down from the
+wagon approached the gate of the merchant's house where the servants of
+the court always stopped. Opening it he led the mare through, and (after
+unharnessing her) fed her. This done, he next entered the house and had
+dinner with the merchant's workingman, and to them he related what an
+important mission he had been sent on, making himself very amusing by
+the pompous air which he assumed. Dinner over, he carried a letter to
+the merchant which the noblewoman had given him to deliver.
+
+The merchant, knowing thoroughly the reputation which Polikey bore,
+felt doubtful of trusting him with so much money, and somewhat anxiously
+inquired if he really had received orders to carry so many rubles.
+
+Polikey tried to appear offended at this question, but did not succeed,
+and he only smiled.
+
+The merchant, after reading the letter a second time and being convinced
+that all was right, gave Polikey the money, which he put in his bosom
+for safe-keeping.
+
+On his way to the house he did not once stop at any of the shops he
+passed. The clothing establishments possessed no attractions for him,
+and after he had safely passed them all he stood for a moment, feeling
+very pleased that he had been able to withstand temptation, and then
+went on his way.
+
+"I have money enough to buy up everything," he said; "but I will not do
+so."
+
+The numerous commissions which he had received compelled him to go to
+the bazaar. There he bought only what had been ordered, but he could
+not resist the temptation to ask the price of a very handsome sheep-skin
+coat which attracted his attention. The merchant to whom he spoke looked
+at Polikey and smiled, not believing that he had sufficient money to
+purchase such an expensive coat. But Polikey, pointing to his breast,
+said that he could buy out the whole shop if he wished to. He thereupon
+ordered the shop-keeper to take his measure. He tried the coat on and
+looked himself over carefully, testing the quality and blowing upon the
+hair to see that none of it came out. Finally, heaving a deep sigh, he
+took it off.
+
+"The price is too high," he said. "If you could let me have it for
+fifteen rubles--"
+
+But the merchant cut him short by snatching the coat from him and
+throwing it angrily to one side.
+
+Polikey left the bazaar and returned to the merchant's house in high
+spirits.
+
+After supper he went out and fed the mare, and prepared everything for
+the night. Returning to the house he got up on the stove to rest, and
+while there he took out the envelope which contained the money and
+looked long and earnestly at it. He could not read, but asked one of
+those present to tell him what the writing on the envelope meant. It
+was simply the address and the announcement that it contained fifteen
+hundred rubles.
+
+The envelope was made of common paper and was sealed with dark-brown
+sealing wax. There was one large seal in the centre and four smaller
+ones at the corners. Polikey continued to examine it carefully, even
+inserting his finger till he touched the crisp notes. He appeared to
+take a childish delight in having so much money in his possession.
+
+Having finished his examination, he put the envelope inside the lining
+of his old battered hat, and placing both under his head he went to
+sleep; but during the night he frequently awoke and always felt to
+know if the money was safe. Each time that he found that it was safe he
+rejoiced at the thought that he, Polikey, abused and regarded by every
+one as a thief, was intrusted with the care of such a large sum of
+money, and also that he was about to return with it quite as safely as
+the superintendent himself could have done.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Before dawn the next morning Polikey was up, and after harnessing the
+mare and looking in his hat to see that the money was all right, he
+started on his return journey.
+
+Many times on the way Polikey took off his hat to see that the money was
+safe. Once he said to himself, "I think that perhaps it would be better
+if I should put it in my bosom." This would necessitate the untying of
+his sash, so he decided to keep it still in his hat, or until he should
+have made half the journey, when he would be compelled to stop to feed
+his horse and to rest.
+
+He said to himself: "The lining is not sewn in very strongly and the
+envelope might fall out, so I think I had better not take off my hat
+until I reach home."
+
+The money was safe--at least, so it seemed to him--and he began to
+think how grateful his mistress would be to him, and in his excited
+imagination he saw the five rubles he was so sure of receiving.
+
+Once more he examined the hat to see that the money was safe, and
+finding everything all right he put on his hat and pulled it well down
+over his ears, smiling all the while at his own thoughts.
+
+Akulina had carefully sewed all the holes in the hat, but it burst out
+in other places owing to Polikey's removing it so often.
+
+In the darkness he did not notice the new rents, and tried to push the
+envelope further under the lining, and in doing so pushed one corner of
+it through the plush.
+
+The sun was getting high in the heavens, and Polikey having slept but
+little the previous night and feeling its warm rays fell fast asleep,
+after first pressing his hat more firmly on his head. By this action
+he forced the envelope still further through the plush, and as he rode
+along his head bobbed up and down.
+
+Polikey did not awake till he arrived near his own house, and his first
+act was to put his hand to his head to learn if his hat was all right.
+Finding that it was in its place, he did not think it necessary to
+examine it and see that the money was safe. Touching the mare gently
+with the whip she started into a trot, and as he rode along he arranged
+in his own mind how much he was to receive. With the air of a man
+already holding a high position at the court, he looked around him with
+an expression of lofty scorn on his face.
+
+As he neared his house he could see before him the one room which
+constituted their humble home, and the joiner's wife next door carrying
+her rolls of linen. He saw also the office of the court and his
+mistress's house, where he hoped he would be able presently to prove
+that he was an honest, trustworthy man.
+
+He reasoned with himself that any person can be abused by lying tongues,
+but when his mistress would see him she would say: "Well done, Polikey;
+you have shown that you can be honest. Here are three--it may be
+five--perhaps ten--rubles for you;" and also she would order tea for
+him, and might treat him to vodki--who knows?
+
+The latter thought gave him great pleasure, as he was feeling very cold.
+
+Speaking aloud he said: "What a happy holy-day we can have with ten
+rubles! Having so much money, I could pay Nikita the four rubles fifty
+kopecks which I owe him, and yet have some left to buy shoes for the
+children."
+
+When near the house Polikey began to arrange his clothes, smoothing
+down his fur collar, re-tying his sash, and stroking his hair. To do the
+latter he had to take off his hat, and when doing so felt in the lining
+for the envelope. Quicker and quicker he ran his hand around the lining,
+and not finding the money used both hands, first one and then the other.
+But the envelope was not to be found.
+
+Polikey was by this time greatly distressed, and his face was white with
+fear as he passed his hand through the crown of his old hat. Polikey
+stopped the mare and began a diligent search through the wagon and
+its contents. Not finding the precious envelope, he felt in all his
+pockets--BUT THE MONEY COULD NOT BE FOUND!
+
+Wildly clutching at his hair, he exclaimed: "Batiushka! What will I do
+now? What will become of me?" At the same time he realized that he was
+near his neighbors' house and could be seen by them; so he turned the
+mare around, and, pulling his hat down securely upon his head, he rode
+quickly back in search of his lost treasure.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The whole day passed without any one in the village of Pokrovski having
+seen anything of Polikey. During the afternoon his mistress inquired
+many times as to his whereabouts, and sent Aksiutka frequently to
+Akulina, who each time sent back word that Polikey had not yet returned,
+saying also that perhaps the merchant had kept him, or that something
+had happened to the mare.
+
+His poor wife felt a heavy load upon her heart, and was scarcely able to
+do her housework and put everything in order for the next day (which was
+to be a holy-day). The children also anxiously awaited their father's
+appearance, and, though for different reasons, could hardly restrain
+their impatience. The noblewoman and Akulina were concerned only in
+regard to Polikey himself, while the children were interested most in
+what he would bring them from the town.
+
+The only news received by the villagers during the day concerning
+Polikey was to the effect that neighboring peasants had seen him running
+up and down the road and asking every one he met if he or she had found
+an envelope.
+
+One of them had seen him also walking by the side of his tired-out
+horse. "I thought," said he, "that the man was drunk, and had not fed
+his horse for two days--the animal looked so exhausted."
+
+Unable to sleep, and with her heart palpitating at every sound, Akulina
+lay awake all night vainly awaiting Polikey's return. When the cock
+crowed the third time she was obliged to get up to attend to the fire.
+Day was just dawning and the church-bells had begun to ring. Soon all
+the children were also up, but there was still no tidings of the missing
+husband and father.
+
+In the morning the chill blasts of winter entered their humble home, and
+on looking out they saw that the houses, fields, and roads were thickly
+covered with snow. The day was clear and cold, as if befitting the
+holy-day they were about to celebrate. They were able to see a long
+distance from the house, but no one was in sight.
+
+Akulina was busy baking cakes, and had it not been for the joyous shouts
+of the children she would not have known that Polikey was coming up the
+road, for a few minutes later he came in with a bundle in his hand and
+walked quietly to his corner. Akulina noticed that he was very pale and
+that his face bore an expression of suffering--as if he would like to
+have cried but could not do so. But she did not stop to study it, but
+excitedly inquired: "What! Illitch, is everything all right with you?"
+
+He slowly muttered something, but his wife could not understand what he
+said.
+
+"What!" she cried out, "have you been to see our mistress?"
+
+Polikey still sat on the bed in his corner, glaring wildly about him,
+and smiling bitterly. He did not reply for a long time, and Akulina
+again cried:
+
+"Eh? Illitch! Why don't you answer me? Why don't you speak?"
+
+Finally he said: "Akulina, I delivered the money to our mistress; and
+oh, how she thanked me!" Then he suddenly looked about him, with an
+anxious, startled air, and with a sad smile on his lips. Two things in
+the room seemed to engross the most of his attention: the baby in the
+cradle, and the rope which was attached to the ladder. Approaching the
+cradle, he began with his thin fingers quickly to untie the knot in the
+rope by which the two were connected. After untying it he stood for a
+few moments looking silently at the baby.
+
+Akulina did not notice this proceeding, and with her cakes on the board
+went to place them in a corner.
+
+Polikey quickly hid the rope beneath his coat, and again seated himself
+on the bed.
+
+"What is it that troubles you, Illitch?" inquired Akulina. "You are not
+yourself."
+
+"I have not slept," he answered.
+
+Suddenly a dark shadow crossed the window, and a minute later the girl
+Aksiutka quickly entered the room, exclaiming:
+
+"The boyarinia commands you, Polikey Illitch, to come to her this
+moment!"
+
+Polikey looked first at Akulina and then at the girl.
+
+"This moment!" he cried. "What more is wanted?"
+
+He spoke the last sentence so softly that Akulina became quieted in
+her mind, thinking that perhaps their mistress intended to reward her
+husband.
+
+"Say that I will come immediately," he said.
+
+But Polikey failed to follow the girl, and went instead to another
+place.
+
+From the porch of his house there was a ladder reaching to the attic.
+Arriving at the foot of the ladder Polikey looked around him, and seeing
+no one about, he quickly ascended to the garret.
+
+*****
+
+Meanwhile the girl had reached her mistress's house.
+
+"What does it mean that Polikey does not come?" said the noblewoman
+impatiently. "Where can he be? Why does he not come at once?"
+
+Aksiutka flew again to his house and demanded to see Polikey.
+
+"He went a long time ago," answered Akulina, and looking around with an
+expression of fear on her face, she added, "He may have fallen asleep
+somewhere on the way."
+
+About this time the joiner's wife, with hair unkempt and clothes
+bedraggled, went up to the loft to gather the linen which she had
+previously put there to dry. Suddenly a cry of horror was heard, and
+the woman, with her eyes closed, and crazed by fear, ran down the ladder
+like a cat.
+
+"Illitch," she cried, "has hanged himself!"
+
+Poor Akulina ran up the ladder before any of the people, who had
+gathered from the surrounding houses, could prevent her. With a loud
+shriek she fell back as if dead, and would surely have been killed had
+not one of the spectators succeeded in catching her in his arms.
+
+Before dark the same day a peasant of the village, while returning from
+the town, found the envelope containing Polikey's money on the roadside,
+and soon after delivered it to the boyarinia.
+
+
+
+
+THE CANDLE.
+
+     "Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a
+     tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, That ye resist not
+     evil."--ST. MATTHEW V. 38, 39.
+
+It was in the time of serfdom--many years before Alexander II.'s
+liberation of the sixty million serfs in 1862. In those days the people
+were ruled by different kinds of lords. There were not a few who,
+remembering God, treated their slaves in a humane manner, and not as
+beasts of burden, while there were others who were seldom known to
+perform a kind or generous action; but the most barbarous and tyrannical
+of all were those former serfs who arose from the dirt and became
+princes.
+
+It was this latter class who made life literally a burden to those
+who were unfortunate enough to come under their rule. Many of them had
+arisen from the ranks of the peasantry to become superintendents of
+noblemen's estates.
+
+The peasants were obliged to work for their master a certain number of
+days each week. There was plenty of land and water and the soil was rich
+and fertile, while the meadows and forests were sufficient to supply the
+needs of both the peasants and their lord.
+
+There was a certain nobleman who had chosen a superintendent from the
+peasantry on one of his other estates. No sooner had the power to govern
+been vested in this newly-made official than he began to practice the
+most outrageous cruelties upon the poor serfs who had been placed under
+his control. Although this man had a wife and two married daughters,
+and was making so much money that he could have lived happily without
+transgressing in any way against either God or man, yet he was filled
+with envy and jealousy and deeply sunk in sin.
+
+Michael Simeonovitch began his persecutions by compelling the peasants
+to perform more days of service on the estate every week than the laws
+obliged them to work. He established a brick-yard, in which he forced
+the men and women to do excessive labor, selling the bricks for his own
+profit.
+
+On one occasion the overworked serfs sent a delegation to Moscow
+to complain of their treatment to their lord, but they obtained no
+satisfaction. When the poor peasants returned disconsolate from the
+nobleman their superintendent determined to have revenge for their
+boldness in going above him for redress, and their life and that of
+their fellow-victims became worse than before.
+
+It happened that among the serfs there were some very treacherous people
+who would falsely accuse their fellows of wrong-doing and sow seeds
+of discord among the peasantry, whereupon Michael would become greatly
+enraged, while his poor subjects began to live in fear of their lives.
+When the superintendent passed through the village the people would run
+and hide themselves as from a wild beast. Seeing thus the terror which
+he had struck to the hearts of the moujiks, Michael's treatment of them
+became still more vindictive, so that from over-work and ill-usage the
+lot of the poor serfs was indeed a hard one.
+
+There was a time when it was possible for the peasants, when driven to
+despair, to devise means whereby they could rid themselves of an inhuman
+monster such as Simeonovitch, and so these unfortunate people began to
+consider whether something could not be done to relieve THEM of their
+intolerable yoke. They would hold little meetings in secret places to
+bewail their misery and to confer with one another as to which would
+be the best way to act. Now and then the boldest of the gathering would
+rise and address his companions in this strain: "How much longer can
+we tolerate such a villain to rule over us? Let us make an end of it at
+once, for it were better for us to perish than to suffer. It is surely
+not a sin to kill such a devil in human form."
+
+It happened once, before the Easter holidays, that one of these meetings
+was held in the woods, where Michael had sent the serfs to make a
+clearance for their master. At noon they assembled to eat their dinner
+and to hold a consultation. "Why can't we leave now?" said one. "Very
+soon we shall be reduced to nothing. Already we are almost worked to
+death--there being no rest, night or day, either for us or our poor
+women. If anything should be done in a way not exactly to please him he
+will find fault and perhaps flog some of us to death--as was the case
+with poor Simeon, whom he killed not long ago. Only recently Anisim
+was tortured in irons till he died. We certainly cannot stand this much
+longer." "Yes," said another, "what is the use of waiting? Let us act at
+once. Michael will be here this evening, and will be certain to abuse us
+shamefully. Let us, then, thrust him from his horse and with one blow of
+an axe give him what he deserves, and thus end our misery. We can then
+dig a big hole and bury him like a dog, and no one will know what became
+of him. Now let us come to an agreement--to stand together as one man
+and not to betray one another."
+
+The last speaker was Vasili Minayeff, who, if possible, had more cause
+to complain of Michael's cruelty than any of his fellow-serfs. The
+superintendent was in the habit of flogging him severely every week, and
+he took also Vasili's wife to serve him as cook.
+
+Accordingly, during the evening that followed this meeting in the woods
+Michael arrived on the scene on horseback. He began at once to find
+fault with the manner in which the work had been done, and to complain
+because some lime-trees had been cut down.
+
+"I told you not to cut down any lime-trees!" shouted the enraged
+superintendent. "Who did this thing? Tell me at once, or I shall flog
+every one of you!"
+
+On investigation, a peasant named Sidor was pointed out as the guilty
+one, and his face was roundly slapped. Michael also severely punished
+Vasili, because he had not done sufficient work, after which the master
+rode safely home.
+
+In the evening the serfs again assembled, and poor Vasili said: "Oh,
+what kind of people ARE we, anyway? We are only sparrows, and not men at
+all! We agree to stand by each other, but as soon as the time for action
+comes we all run and hide. Once a lot of sparrows conspired against a
+hawk, but no sooner did the bird of prey appear than they sneaked off in
+the grass. Selecting one of the choicest sparrows, the hawk took it away
+to eat, after which the others came out crying, 'Twee-twee!' and found
+that one was missing. 'Who is killed?' they asked. 'Vanka! Well, he
+deserved it.' You, my friends, are acting in just the same manner. When
+Michael attacked Sidor you should have stood by your promise. Why didn't
+you arise, and with one stroke put an end to him and to our misery?"
+
+The effect of this speech was to make the peasants more firm in their
+determination to kill their superintendent. The latter had already given
+orders that they should be ready to plough during the Easter holidays,
+and to sow the field with oats, whereupon the serfs became stricken
+with grief, and gathered in Vasili's house to hold another indignation
+meeting. "If he has really forgotten God," they said, "and shall
+continue to commit such crimes against us, it is truly necessary that we
+should kill him. If not, let us perish, for it can make no difference to
+us now."
+
+This despairing programme, however, met with considerable opposition
+from a peaceably-inclined man named Peter Mikhayeff. "Brethren," said
+he, "you are contemplating a grievous sin. The taking of human life is a
+very serious matter. Of course it is easy to end the mortal existence of
+a man, but what will become of the souls of those who commit the deed?
+If Michael continues to act toward us unjustly God will surely punish
+him. But, my friends, we must have patience."
+
+This pacific utterance only served to intensify the anger of Vasili.
+Said he: "Peter is forever repeating the same old story, 'It is a sin to
+kill any one.' Certainly it is sinful to murder; but we should consider
+the kind of man we are dealing with. We all know it is wrong to kill a
+good man, but even God would take away the life of such a dog as he is.
+It is our duty, if we have any love for mankind, to shoot a dog that
+is mad. It is a sin to let him live. If, therefore, we are to suffer at
+all, let it be in the interests of the people--and they will thank
+us for it. If we remain quiet any longer a flogging will be our only
+reward. You are talking nonsense, Mikhayeff. Why don't you think of the
+sin we shall be committing if we work during the Easter holidays--for
+you will refuse to work then yourself?"
+
+"Well, then," replied Peter, "if they shall send me to plough, I will
+go. But I shall not be going of my own free will, and God will know
+whose sin it is, and shall punish the offender accordingly. Yet we must
+not forget him. Brethren, I am not giving you my own views only. The law
+of God is not to return evil for evil; indeed, if you try in this way to
+stamp out wickedness it will come upon you all the stronger. It is not
+difficult for you to kill the man, but his blood will surely stain your
+own soul. You may think you have killed a bad man--that you have gotten
+rid of evil--but you will soon find out that the seeds of still greater
+wickedness have been planted within you. If you yield to misfortune it
+will surely come to you."
+
+As Peter was not without sympathizers among the peasants, the poor serfs
+were consequently divided into two groups: the followers of Vasili and
+those who held the views of Mikhayeff.
+
+On Easter Sunday no work was done. Toward the evening an elder came to
+the peasants from the nobleman's court and said: "Our superintendent,
+Michael Simeonovitch, orders you to go to-morrow to plough the field for
+the oats." Thus the official went through the village and directed the
+men to prepare for work the next day--some by the river and others by
+the roadway. The poor people were almost overcome with grief, many
+of them shedding tears, but none dared to disobey the orders of their
+master.
+
+On the morning of Easter Monday, while the church bells were calling the
+inhabitants to religious services, and while every one else was about to
+enjoy a holiday, the unfortunate serfs started for the field to plough.
+Michael arose rather late and took a walk about the farm. The domestic
+servants were through with their work and had dressed themselves for the
+day, while Michael's wife and their widowed daughter (who was visiting
+them, as was her custom on holidays) had been to church and returned. A
+steaming samovar awaited them, and they began to drink tea with Michael,
+who, after lighting his pipe, called the elder to him.
+
+"Well," said the superintendent, "have you ordered the moujiks to plough
+to-day?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I did," was the reply.
+
+"Have they all gone to the field?"
+
+"Yes, sir; all of them. I directed them myself where to begin."
+
+"That is all very well. You gave the orders, but are they ploughing?
+Go at once and see, and you may tell them that I shall be there after
+dinner. I shall expect to find one and a half acres done for every
+two ploughs, and the work must be well done; otherwise they shall be
+severely punished, notwithstanding the holiday."
+
+"I hear, sir, and obey."
+
+The elder started to go, but Michael called him back. After hesitating
+for some time, as if he felt very uneasy, he said:
+
+"By the way, listen to what those scoundrels say about me. Doubtless
+some of them will curse me, and I want you to report the exact words. I
+know what villains they are. They don't find work at all pleasant. They
+would rather lie down all day and do nothing. They would like to eat and
+drink and make merry on holidays, but they forget that if the ploughing
+is not done it will soon be too late. So you go and listen to what is
+said, and tell it to me in detail. Go at once."
+
+"I hear, sir, and obey."
+
+Turning his back and mounting his horse, the elder was soon at the field
+where the serfs were hard at work.
+
+It happened that Michael's wife, a very good-hearted woman, overheard
+the conversation which her husband had just been holding with the elder.
+Approaching him, she said:
+
+"My good friend, Mishinka [diminutive of Michael], I beg of you to
+consider the importance and solemnity of this holy-day. Do not sin, for
+Christ's sake. Let the poor moujiks go home."
+
+Michael laughed, but made no reply to his wife's humane request. Finally
+he said to her:
+
+"You've not been whipped for a very long time, and now you have become
+bold enough to interfere in affairs that are not your own."
+
+"Mishinka," she persisted, "I have had a frightful dream concerning you.
+You had better let the moujiks go."
+
+"Yes," said he; "I perceive that you have gained so much flesh of late
+that you think you would not feel the whip. Lookout!"
+
+Rudely thrusting his hot pipe against her cheek, Michael chased his wife
+from the room, after which he ordered his dinner. After eating a hearty
+meal consisting of cabbage-soup, roast pig, meat-cake, pastry with
+milk, jelly, sweet cakes, and vodki, he called his woman cook to him and
+ordered her to be seated and sing songs, Simeonovitch accompanying her
+on the guitar.
+
+While the superintendent was thus enjoying himself to the fullest
+satisfaction in the musical society of his cook the elder returned,
+and, making a low bow to his superior, proceeded to give the desired
+information concerning the serfs.
+
+"Well," asked Michael, "did they plough?"
+
+"Yes," replied the elder; "they have accomplished about half the field."
+
+"Is there no fault to be found?"
+
+"Not that I could discover. The work seems to be well done. They are
+evidently afraid of you."
+
+"How is the soil?"
+
+"Very good. It appears to be quite soft."
+
+"Well," said Simeonovitch, after a pause, "what did they say about me?
+Cursed me, I suppose?"
+
+As the elder hesitated somewhat, Michael commanded him to speak and tell
+him the whole truth. "Tell me all," said he; "I want to know their exact
+words. If you tell me the truth I shall reward you; but if you conceal
+anything from me you will be punished. See here, Catherine, pour out a
+glass of vodki to give him courage!"
+
+After drinking to the health of his superior, the elder said to himself:
+"It is not my fault if they do not praise him. I shall tell him the
+truth." Then turning suddenly to the superintendent he said:
+
+"They complain, Michael Simeonovitch! They complain bitterly."
+
+"But what did they say?" demanded Michael. "Tell me!"
+
+"Well, one thing they said was, 'He does not believe in God.'"
+
+Michael laughed. "Who said that?" he asked.
+
+"It seemed to be their unanimous opinion. 'He has been overcome by the
+Evil One,' they said."
+
+"Very good," laughed the superintendent; "but tell me what each of them
+said. What did Vasili say?"
+
+The elder did not wish to betray his people, but he had a certain grudge
+against Vasili, and he said:
+
+"He cursed you more than did any of the others."
+
+"But what did he say?"
+
+"It is awful to repeat it, sir. Vasili said, 'He shall die like a dog,
+having no chance to repent!'"
+
+"Oh, the villain!" exclaimed Michael. "He would kill me if he were not
+afraid. All right, Vasili; we shall have an accounting with you. And
+Tishka--he called me a dog, I suppose?"
+
+"Well," said the elder, "they all spoke of you in anything but
+complimentary terms; but it is mean in me to repeat what they said."
+
+"Mean or not you must tell me, I say!"
+
+"Some of them declared that your back should be broken."
+
+Simeonovitch appeared to enjoy this immensely, for he laughed outright.
+"We shall see whose back will be the first to be broken," said he. "Was
+that Tishka's opinion? While I did not suppose they would say anything
+good about me, I did not expect such curses and threats. And Peter
+Mikhayeff--was that fool cursing me too?"
+
+"No; he did not curse you at all. He appeared to be the only silent one
+among them. Mikhayeff is a very wise moujik, and he surprises me very
+much. At his actions all the other peasants seemed amazed."
+
+"What did he do?"
+
+"He did something remarkable. He was diligently ploughing, and as I
+approached him I heard some one singing very sweetly. Looking between
+the ploughshares, I observed a bright object shining."
+
+"Well, what was it? Hurry up!"
+
+"It was a small, five-kopeck wax candle, burning brightly, and the wind
+was unable to blow it out. Peter, wearing a new shirt, sang beautiful
+hymns as he ploughed, and no matter how he handled the implement the
+candle continued to burn. In my presence he fixed the plough, shaking
+it violently, but the bright little object between the colters remained
+undisturbed."
+
+"And what did Mikhayeff say?"
+
+"He said nothing--except when, on seeing me, he gave me the holy-day
+salutation, after which he went on his way singing and ploughing as
+before. I did not say anything to him, but, on approaching the other
+moujiks, I found that they were laughing and making sport of their
+silent companion. 'It is a great sin to plough on Easter Monday,' they
+said. 'You could not get absolution from your sin if you were to pray
+all your life.'"
+
+"And did Mikhayeff make no reply?"
+
+"He stood long enough to say: 'There should be peace on earth and
+good-will to men,' after which he resumed his ploughing and singing, the
+candle burning even more brightly than before."
+
+Simeonovitch had now ceased to ridicule, and, putting aside his guitar,
+his head dropped on his breast and he became lost in thought. Presently
+he ordered the elder and cook to depart, after which Michael went behind
+a screen and threw himself upon the bed. He was sighing and moaning, as
+if in great distress, when his wife came in and spoke kindly to him. He
+refused to listen to her, exclaiming:
+
+"He has conquered me, and my end is near!"
+
+"Mishinka," said the woman, "arise and go to the moujiks in the field.
+Let them go home, and everything will be all right. Heretofore you have
+run far greater risks without any fear, but now you appear to be very
+much alarmed."
+
+"He has conquered me!" he repeated. "I am lost!"
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded his wife, angrily. "If you will go and
+do as I tell you there will be no danger. Come, Mishinka," she added,
+tenderly; "I shall have the saddle-horse brought for you at once."
+
+When the horse arrived the woman persuaded her husband to mount the
+animal, and to fulfil her request concerning the serfs. When he reached
+the village a woman opened the gate for him to enter, and as he did so
+the inhabitants, seeing the brutal superintendent whom everybody feared,
+ran to hide themselves in their houses, gardens, and other secluded
+places.
+
+At length Michael reached the other gate, which he found closed also,
+and, being unable to open it himself while seated on his horse, he
+called loudly for assistance. As no one responded to his shouts he
+dismounted and opened the gate, but as he was about to remount, and had
+one foot in the stirrup, the horse became frightened at some pigs and
+sprang suddenly to one side. The superintendent fell across the
+fence and a very sharp picket pierced his stomach, when Michael fell
+unconscious to the ground.
+
+Toward the evening, when the serfs arrived at the village gate, their
+horses refused to enter. On looking around, the peasants discovered
+the dead body of their superintendent lying face downward in a pool of
+blood, where he had fallen from the fence. Peter Mikhayeff alone had
+sufficient courage to dismount and approach the prostrate form, his
+companions riding around the village and entering by way of the back
+yards. Peter closed the dead man's eyes, after which he put the body in
+a wagon and took it home.
+
+When the nobleman learned of the fatal accident which had befallen his
+superintendent, and of the brutal treatment which he had meted out to
+those under him, he freed the serfs, exacting a small rent for the use
+of his land and the other agricultural opportunities.
+
+And thus the peasants clearly understood that the power of God is
+manifested not in evil, but in goodness.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, by 
+Leo Tolstoi
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+******The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Kreutzer Sonata******
+and Other Stories by Count Leo Tolstoi/Tolstoy
+
+#2 in our series by Leo Tolstoy  [Previous Etext used Tolstoy]
+[This one uses Tolstoi]
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+The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
+
+by Count Leo Tolstoi
+
+October, 1996 [Etext #689]
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+**The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Kreutzer Sonata and Other
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+
+Note: I have made the following changes to the text:
+PAGE  LINE  ORIGINAL          CHANGED TO
+   8    10  wife              wife.
+  47     8  is!"              is!'
+  67     4  it she            if she
+  75    22  antimated;        animated;
+  78     6  larity,           liarity,
+  84    19  distance          distance.
+ 100     8  imits             limits
+ 101    19  children.         children,
+ 121    24  firt              first
+ 126     8  ention).          tention).
+ 135    17  together          together.
+ 150    17  pealous           jealous
+  30     1  them.'            them."
+  40     1  th                that
+ 166     9  the mare.         to the mare.
+ 194    10  indgination       indignation
+
+
+
+
+
+The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
+
+BY COUNT LEO TOLSTOI
+
+Author of "Resurrection," "Life is Worth Living,"
+"Ivan the Fool," Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Kreutzer Sonata
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
+
+KREUTZER SONATA.
+
+IVAN THE FOOL.
+
+A LOST OPPORTUNITY.
+
+POLIKUSHKA.
+
+THE CANDLE.
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
+
+On comparing with the original Russian some English translations
+of Count Tolstoi's works, published both in this country and in
+England, I concluded that they were far from being accurate.  The
+majority of them were retranslations from the French, and I found
+that the respective transitions through which they had passed
+tended to obliterate many of the beauties of the Russian language
+and of the peculiar characteristics of Russian life.  A 
+satisfactory translation can be made only by one who understands
+the language and SPIRIT of the Russian people.  As Tolstoi's
+writings contain so many idioms it is not an easy task to render
+them into intelligible English, and the one who successfully
+accomplishes this must be a native of Russia, commanding the
+English and Russian languages with equal fluency.
+
+The story of "Ivan the Fool" portrays Tolstoi's communistic
+ideas, involving the abolition of military forces, middlemen,
+despotism, and money.  Instead of these he would establish on
+earth a kingdom in which each and every person would become a
+worker and producer.  The author describes the various struggles
+through which three brothers passed, beset as they were by devils
+large and small, until they reached the ideal state of existence
+which he believes to be the only happy one attainable in this
+world.
+
+On reading this little story one is surprised that the Russian
+censor passed it, as it is devoted to a narration of ideas quite
+at variance with the present policy of the government of that
+country.
+
+"A Lost Opportunity" is a singularly true picture of peasant
+life, which evinces a deep study of the subject on the part of
+the writer.  Tolstoi has drawn many of the peculiar customs of
+the Russian peasant in a masterly manner, and I doubt if he has
+given a more comprehensive description of this feature of Russian
+life in any of his other works.  In this story also he has
+presented many traits which are common to human nature throughout
+the world, and this gives an added interest to the book.  The
+language is simple and picturesque, and the characters are drawn
+with remarkable fidelity to nature.  The moral of this tale
+points out how the hero Ivan might have avoided the terrible
+consequences of a quarrel with his neighbor (which grew out of
+nothing) if he had lived in accordance with the scriptural
+injunction to forgive his brother's sins and seek not for
+revenge.
+
+The story of "Polikushka" is a very graphic description of the
+life led by a servant of the court household of a certain
+nobleman, in which the author portrays the different conditions
+and surroundings enjoyed by these servants from those of the
+ordinary or common peasants.  It is a true and powerful
+reproduction of an element in Russian life but little written
+about heretofore.  Like the other stories of this great writer,
+"Polikushka" has a moral to which we all might profitably give
+heed.  He illustrates the awful consequences of intemperance, and
+concludes that only kind treatment can reform the victims of
+alcohol.
+
+For much valuable assistance in the work of  these translations,
+I am deeply indebted to the bright English scholarship of my
+devoted wife.
+
+ 
+
+THE KREUTZER SONATA.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Travellers left and entered our car at every stopping of the
+train.  Three persons, however, remained, bound, like myself, for
+the farthest station: a lady neither young nor pretty, smoking
+cigarettes, with a thin face, a cap on her head, and wearing a
+semi-masculine outer garment; then her companion, a very
+loquacious gentleman of about forty years, with baggage entirely
+new and arranged in an orderly manner; then a gentleman who held
+himself entirely aloof, short in stature, very nervous, of
+uncertain age, with bright eyes, not pronounced in color, but
+extremely attractive,--eyes that darted with rapidity from one
+object to another.
+
+This gentleman, during almost all the journey thus far, had
+entered into conversation with no fellow-traveller, as if he
+carefully avoided all acquaintance.  When spoken to, he answered
+curtly and decisively, and began to look out of the car window
+obstinately.
+
+Yet it seemed to me that the solitude weighed upon him.  He
+seemed to perceive that I understood this, and when our eyes met,
+as happened frequently, since we were sitting almost opposite
+each other, he turned away his head, and avoided conversation
+with me as much as with the others.  At nightfall, during a stop
+at a large station, the gentleman with the fine baggage--a
+lawyer, as I have since learned--got out with his companion to
+drink some tea at the restaurant.  During their absence several
+new travellers entered the car, among whom was a tall old man,
+shaven and wrinkled, evidently a merchant, wearing a large
+heavily-lined cloak and a big cap.  This merchant sat down
+opposite the empty seats of the lawyer and his companion, and
+straightway entered into conversation with a young man who seemed
+like an employee in some commercial house, and who had likewise
+just boarded the train.  At first the clerk had remarked that the
+seat opposite was occupied, and the old man had answered that he
+should get out at the first station.  Thus their conversation
+started.
+
+I was sitting not far from these two travellers, and, as the
+train was not in motion, I could catch bits of their conversation
+when others were not talking.
+
+They talked first of the prices of goods and the condition of
+business; they referred to a person whom they both knew; then
+they plunged into the fair at Nijni Novgorod.  The clerk boasted
+of knowing people who were leading a gay life there, but the old
+man did not allow him to continue, and, interrupting him, began
+to describe the festivities of the previous year at Kounavino, in
+which he had taken part. He was evidently proud of these
+recollections, and, probably thinking that this would detract
+nothing from the gravity which his face and manners expressed, he
+related with pride how, when drunk, he had fired, at Kounavino,
+such a broadside that he could describe it only in the other's
+ear.
+
+The clerk began to laugh noisily.  The old man laughed too,
+showing two long yellow teeth.  Their conversation not
+interesting me, I left the car to stretch my legs.  At the door I
+met the lawyer and his lady.
+
+"You have no more time," the lawyer said to me.  "The second bell
+is about to ring."
+
+Indeed I had scarcely reached the rear of the train when the bell
+sounded.  As I entered the car again, the lawyer was talking with
+his companion in an animated fashion.  The merchant, sitting
+opposite them, was taciturn.
+
+"And then she squarely declared to her husband," said the lawyer
+with a smile, as I passed by them, "that she neither could nor
+would live with him, because" . . .
+
+And he continued, but I did not hear the rest of the sentence, my
+attention being distracted by the passing of the conductor and a
+new traveller.  When silence was restored, I again heard the
+lawyer's voice.  The conversation had passed from a special case
+to general considerations.
+
+"And afterward comes discord, financial difficulties, disputes
+between the two parties, and the couple separate.  In the good
+old days that seldom happened.  Is it not so?" asked the lawyer
+of the two merchants, evidently trying to drag them into the
+conversation.
+
+Just then the train started, and the old man, without answering,
+took off his cap, and crossed himself three times while muttering
+a prayer. When he had finished, he clapped his cap far down on
+his head, and said:
+
+"Yes, sir, that happened in former times also, but not as often. 
+In the present day it is bound to happen more frequently.  People
+have become too learned."
+
+The lawyer made some reply to the old man, but the train, ever
+increasing its speed, made such a clatter upon the rails that I
+could no longer hear distinctly.  As I was interested in what the
+old man was saying, I drew nearer. My neighbor, the nervous
+gentleman, was evidently interested also, and, without changing
+his seat, he lent an ear.
+
+"But what harm is there in education?" asked the lady, with a
+smile that was scarcely perceptible.  "Would it be better to
+marry as in the old days, when the bride and bridegroom did not
+even see each other before marriage?" she continued, answering,
+as is the habit of our ladies, not the words that her
+interlocutor had spoken, but the words she believed he was going
+to speak.  "Women did not know whether they would love or would
+be loved, and they were married to the first comer, and suffered
+all their lives.  Then you think it was better so?" she
+continued, evidently addressing the lawyer and myself, and not at
+all the old man.
+
+"People have become too learned," repeated the last, looking at
+the lady with contempt, and leaving her question unanswered.
+
+"I should be curious to know how you explain the correlation
+between education and conjugal differences," said the lawyer,
+with a slight smile.
+
+The merchant wanted to make some reply,  but the lady interrupted
+him.
+
+"No, those days are past."
+
+The lawyer cut short her words:--
+
+"Let him express his thought."
+
+"Because there is no more fear," replied the old man.
+
+"But how will you marry people who do not love each other?  Only
+animals can be coupled at the will of a proprietor.  But people
+have inclinations, attachments," the lady hastened to say,
+casting a glance at the lawyer, at me, and even at the clerk,
+who, standing up and leaning his elbow on the back of a seat, was
+listening to the conversation with a smile.
+
+"You are wrong to say that, madam," said the old man.  "The
+animals are beasts, but man has received the law."
+
+"But, nevertheless, how is one to live with a man when there is
+no love?" said the lady, evidently excited by the general
+sympathy and attention.
+
+"Formerly no such distinctions were made," said the old man,
+gravely.  "Only now have they become a part of our habits.  As
+soon as the least thing happens, the wife says: 'I release you. 
+I am going to leave your house.'  Even among the moujiks this
+fashion has become acclimated.  'There,' she says, 'here are your
+shirts and drawers.  I am going off with Vanka. His hair is
+curlier than yours.'  Just go talk with them.  And yet the first
+rule for the wife should be fear."
+
+The clerk looked at the lawyer, the lady, and myself, evidently
+repressing a smile, and all ready to deride or approve the
+merchant's words, according to the attitude of the others.
+
+"What fear?" said the lady.
+
+"This fear,--the wife must fear her husband; that is what fear."
+
+"Oh, that, my little father, that is ended."
+
+"No, madam, that cannot end.  As she, Eve, the woman, was taken
+from man's ribs, so she will remain unto the end of the world,"
+said the old man, shaking his head so triumphantly and so
+severely that the clerk, deciding that the victory was on his
+side, burst into a loud laugh.
+
+"Yes, you men think so," replied the lady, without surrendering,
+and turning toward us. "You have given yourself liberty.  As for
+woman, you wish to keep her in the seraglio. To you, everything
+is permissible.  Is it not so?"
+
+"Oh, man,--that's another affair."
+
+"Then, according to you, to man everything is permissible?"
+
+"No one gives him this permission; only, if the man behaves badly
+outside, the family is not increased thereby; but the woman, the
+wife, is a fragile vessel," continued the merchant, severely.
+
+His tone of authority evidently subjugated his hearers.  Even the
+lady felt crushed, but she did not surrender.
+
+"Yes, but you will admit, I think, that woman is a human being,
+and has feelings like her husband.  What should she do if she
+does not love her husband?"
+
+"If she does not love him!" repeated the old man, stormily, and
+knitting his brows; "why, she will be made to love him."
+
+This unexpected argument pleased the clerk, and he uttered a
+murmur of approbation.
+
+"Oh, no, she will not be forced," said the lady.  "Where there is
+no love, one cannot be obliged to love in spite of herself."
+
+"And if the wife deceives her husband, what is to be done?" said
+the lawyer.
+
+"That should not happen," said the old man. "He must have his
+eyes about him."
+
+"And if it does happen, all the same?  You will admit that it
+does happen?"
+
+"It happens among the upper classes, not among us," answered the
+old man.  "And if any husband is found who is such a fool as not
+to rule his wife, he will not have robbed her. But no scandal,
+nevertheless.  Love or not, but do not disturb the household. 
+Every husband can govern his wife.  He has the necessary power. 
+It is only the imbecile who does not succeed in doing so."
+
+Everybody was silent.  The clerk moved, advanced, and, not
+wishing to lag behind the others in the conversation, began with
+his eternal smile:
+
+"Yes, in the house of our employer, a scandal has arisen, and it
+is very difficult to view the matter clearly.  The wife loved to
+amuse herself, and began to go astray.  He is a capable and
+serious man.  First, it was with the book-keeper.  The husband
+tried to bring her back to reason through kindness.  She did not
+change her conduct.  She plunged into all sorts of beastliness. 
+She began to steal his money.  He beat her, but she grew worse
+and worse.  To an unbaptized, to a pagan, to a Jew (saving your
+permission), she went in succession for her caresses.  What could
+the employer do?  He has dropped her entirely, and now he lives
+as a bachelor.  As for her, she is dragging in the depths."
+
+"He is an imbecile," said the old man.  "If from the first he had
+not allowed her to go in her own fashion, and had kept a firm
+hand upon her, she would be living honestly, no danger.  Liberty
+must be taken away from the beginning.  Do not trust yourself to
+your horse upon the highway.  Do not trust yourself to your wife
+at home."
+
+At that moment the conductor passed, asking for the tickets for
+the next station.  The old man gave up his.
+
+"Yes, the feminine sex must be dominated in season, else all will
+perish."
+
+"And you yourselves, at Kounavino, did you not lead a gay life
+with the pretty girls?" asked the lawyer with a smile.
+
+"Oh, that's another matter," said the merchant, severely. 
+"Good-by," he added, rising.  He wrapped himself in his cloak,
+lifted his cap, and, taking his bag, left the car.
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+
+ Scarcely had the old man gone when a general conversation began.
+
+"There's a little Old Testament father for you," said the clerk.
+
+"He is a Domostroy,"* said the lady.  "What savage ideas about a
+woman and marriage!"
+
+ *The Domostroy is a matrimonial code of the days of Ivan the
+Terrible.
+
+ "Yes, gentlemen," said the lawyer, "we are still a long way from
+the European ideas upon marriage.  First, the rights of woman,
+then free marriage, then divorce, as a question not yet solved."
+. . .
+
+"The main thing, and the thing which such people as he do not
+understand," rejoined the lady, "is that only love consecrates
+marriage, and that the real marriage is that which is consecrated
+by love."
+
+The clerk listened and smiled, with the air of one accustomed to
+store in his memory all intelligent conversation that he hears,
+in order to make use of it afterwards.
+
+"But what is this love that consecrates marriage?" said,
+suddenly, the voice of the nervous and taciturn gentleman, who,
+unnoticed by us, had approached.
+
+He was standing with his hand on the seat, and evidently
+agitated.  His face was red, a vein in his forehead was swollen,
+and the muscles of his cheeks quivered.
+
+"What is this love that consecrates marriage?" he repeated.
+
+"What love?" said the lady.  "The ordinary love of husband and
+wife."
+
+"And how, then, can ordinary love consecrate marriage?" continued
+the nervous gentleman, still excited, and with a displeased air. 
+He seemed to wish to say something disagreeable to the lady.  She
+felt it, and began to grow agitated.
+
+"How?  Why, very simply," said she.
+
+The nervous gentleman seized the word as it left her lips.
+
+"No, not simply."
+
+"Madam says," interceded the lawyer indicating his companion,
+"that marriage should be first the result of an attachment, of a
+love, if you will, and that, when love exists, and in that case
+only, marriage represents something sacred.  But every marriage
+which is not based on a natural attachment, on love, has in it
+nothing that is morally obligatory.  Is not that the idea that
+you intended to convey?" he asked the lady.
+
+The lady, with a nod of her head, expressed her approval of this
+translation of her thoughts.
+
+"Then," resumed the lawyer, continuing his remarks.
+
+But the nervous gentleman, evidently scarcely able to contain
+himself, without allowing the lawyer to finish, asked:
+
+"Yes, sir.  But what are we to understand by this love that alone
+consecrates marriage?"
+
+"Everybody knows what love is," said the lady.
+
+"But I don't know, and I should like to know how you define it."
+
+"How?  It is very simple," said the lady.
+
+And she seemed thoughtful, and then said:
+
+"Love . . . love . . . is a preference for one man or one woman
+to the exclusion of all others. . . ."
+
+"A preference for how long? . . .  For a month, two days, or half
+an hour?" said the nervous gentleman, with special irritation.
+
+"No, permit me, you evidently are not talking of the same thing."
+
+"Yes, I am talking absolutely of the same thing.  Of the
+preference for one man or one  woman to the exclusion of all
+others.  But I ask: a preference for how long?"
+
+"For how long?  For a long time, for a life-time sometimes."
+
+"But that happens only in novels.  In life, never.  In life this
+preference for one to the exclusion of all others lasts in rare
+cases several years, oftener several months, or even weeks, days,
+hours. . . ."
+
+"Oh, sir.  Oh, no, no, permit me," said all three of us at the
+same time.
+
+The clerk himself uttered a monosyllable of disapproval.
+
+"Yes, I know," he said, shouting louder than all of us; "you are
+talking of what is believed to exist, and I am talking of what
+is.  Every man feels what you call love toward each pretty woman
+he sees, and very little toward his wife. That is the origin of
+the proverb,--and it is a true one,--'Another's wife is a white
+swan, and ours is bitter wormwood."'
+
+"Ah, but what you say is terrible!  There certainly exists among
+human beings this feeling which is called love, and which lasts,
+not for months and years, but for life."
+
+"No, that does not exist.  Even if it should be admitted that
+Menelaus had preferred Helen all his life, Helen would have
+preferred Paris; and so it has been, is, and will be eternally.
+And it cannot be otherwise, just as it cannot happen that, in a
+load of chick-peas, two peas marked with a special sign should
+fall side by side.  Further, this is not only an improbability,
+but it is certain that a feeling of satiety will come to Helen or
+to Menelaus.  The whole difference is that to one it comes
+sooner, to the other later.  It is only in stupid novels that it
+is written that 'they loved each other all their lives.'  And
+none but children can believe it.  To talk of loving a man or
+woman for life is like saying that a candle can burn
+forever."
+
+"But you are talking of physical love.  Do you not admit a love
+based upon a conformity of ideals, on a spiritual affinity?"
+
+"Why not?  But in that case it is not necessary to procreate
+together (excuse my brutality).  The point is that this
+conformity of ideals is not met among old people, but among young
+and pretty persons," said he, and he began to laugh disagreeably.
+
+"Yes, I affirm that love, real love, does not consecrate
+marriage, as we are in the habit of believing, but that, on the
+contrary, it ruins it."
+
+"Permit me," said the lawyer.  "The facts contradict your words. 
+We see that marriage exists, that all humanity--at least the
+larger portion--lives conjugally, and that many husbands and
+wives honestly end a long life together."
+
+The nervous gentleman smiled ill-naturedly.
+
+"And what then?  You say that marriage is based upon love, and
+when I give voice to a doubt as to the existence of any other
+love than sensual love, you prove to me the existence of love by
+marriage.  But in our day marriage is only a violence and
+falsehood."
+
+"No, pardon me," said the lawyer.  "I say only that marriages
+have existed and do exist."
+
+"But how and why do they exist?  They have existed, and they do
+exist, for people who have seen, and do see, in marriage
+something sacramental, a sacrament that is binding before God.
+For such people marriages exist, but to us they are only
+hypocrisy and violence.  We feel it, and, to clear ourselves, we
+preach free love; but, really, to preach free love is only a call
+backward to the promiscuity of the sexes (excuse me, he said to
+the lady), the haphazard sin of certain raskolniks.  The old
+foundation is shattered; we must build a new one, but we must not
+preach debauchery."
+
+He grew so warm that all became silent, looking at him in
+astonishment.
+
+"And yet the transition state is terrible.  People feel that
+haphazard sin is inadmissible.  It is necessary in some way or
+other to regulate the sexual relations; but there exists no other
+foundation than the old one, in which nobody longer believes? 
+People marry in the old fashion, without believing in what they
+do, and the result is falsehood, violence.  When it is falsehood
+alone, it is easily endured.  The husband and wife simply deceive
+the world by professing to live monogamically.  If they really
+are polygamous and polyandrous, it is bad, but acceptable.  But
+when, as often happens, the husband and the wife have taken upon
+themselves the obligation to live together all their lives (they
+themselves do not know why), and from the second month have
+already a desire to separate, but continue to live together just
+the same, then comes that infernal existence in which they resort
+to drink, in which they fire revolvers, in which they assassinate
+each other, in which they poison each other."
+
+All were silent, but we felt ill at ease.
+
+"Yes, these critical episodes happen in marital life.  For
+instance, there is the Posdnicheff affair," said the lawyer,
+wishing to stop the conversation on this embarrassing and too
+exciting ground.  "Have you read how he killed his wife through
+jealousy?"
+
+The lady said that she had not read it.  The nervous gentleman
+said nothing, and changed color.
+
+"I see that you have divined who I am," said he, suddenly, after
+a pause.
+
+"No, I have not had that pleasure."
+
+"It is no great pleasure.  I am Posdnicheff."
+
+New silence.  He blushed, then turned pale again.
+
+"What matters it, however?" said he.  "Excuse me, I do not wish
+to embarrass you."
+
+And he resumed his old seat.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER III.
+
+I resumed mine, also.  The lawyer and the lady whispered
+together.  I was sitting beside Posdnicheff, and I maintained
+silence.  I desired to talk to him, but I did not know how to
+begin, and thus an hour passed until we reached the next station.
+
+There the lawyer and the lady went out, as well as the clerk.  We
+were left alone, Posdnicheff and I.
+
+"They say it, and they lie, or they do not understand," said
+Posdnicheff.
+
+"Of what are you talking?"
+
+"Why, still the same thing."
+
+He leaned his elbows upon his knees, and pressed his hands
+against his temples.
+
+"Love, marriage, family,--all lies, lies, lies."
+
+He rose, lowered the lamp-shade, lay down with his elbows on the
+cushion, and closed his eyes.  He remained thus for a minute.
+
+"Is it disagreeable to you to remain with me, now that you know
+who I am?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+"You have no desire to sleep?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"Then do you want me to tell you the story of my life?"
+
+Just then the conductor passed.  He followed him with an
+ill-natured look, and did not begin until he had gone again. 
+Then during all the rest of the story he did not stop once.  Even
+the new travellers as they entered did not stop him.
+
+His face, while he was talking, changed several times so
+completely that it bore positively no resemblance to itself as it
+had appeared just before.  His eyes, his mouth, his moustache,
+and even his beard, all were new.  Each time it was a beautiful
+and touching physiognomy, and these transformations were produced
+suddenly in the penumbra; and for five minutes it was the same
+face, that could not be compared to that of five minutes before. 
+And then, I know not how, it changed again, and became
+unrecognizable.
+
+  
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"Well, I am going then to tell you my life, and my whole
+frightful history,--yes, frightful.  And the story itself is more
+frightful than the outcome."
+
+He became silent for a moment, passed his hands over his eyes,
+and began:--
+
+"To be understood clearly, the whole must be told from the
+beginning.  It must be told how and why I married, and what I was
+before my marriage.  First, I will tell you who I am.  The son of
+a rich gentleman of the steppes, an old marshal of the nobility,
+I was a University pupil, a graduate of the law school.  I
+married in my thirtieth year.  But before talking to you of my
+marriage, I must tell you how I lived formerly, and what ideas I
+had of conjugal life.  I led the life of so many other so-called
+respectable people,--that is, in debauchery.  And like the
+majority, while leading the life of a debauche, I was convinced
+that I was a man of irreproachable morality.
+
+"The idea that I had of my morality arose from the fact that in
+my family there was no knowledge of those special debaucheries,
+so common in the surroundings of land-owners, and also from the
+fact that my father and my mother did not deceive each other.  In
+consequence of this, I had built from childhood a dream of high
+and poetical conjugal life.  My wife was to be perfection itself,
+our mutual love was to be incomparable, the purity of our
+conjugal life stainless.  I thought thus, and all the time I
+marvelled at the nobility of my projects.
+
+"At the same time, I passed ten years of my adult life without
+hurrying toward marriage, and I led what I called the
+well-regulated and reasonable life of a bachelor.  I was proud of
+it before my friends, and before all men of my age who abandoned
+themselves to all sorts of special refinements.  I was not a
+seducer, I had no unnatural tastes, I did not make debauchery the
+principal object of my life; but I found pleasure within the
+limits of society's rules, and innocently believed myself a
+profoundly moral being.  The women with whom I had relations did
+not belong to me alone, and I asked of them nothing but the
+pleasure of the moment.
+
+"In all this I saw nothing abnormal.  On the contrary, from the
+fact that I did not engage my heart, but paid in cash, I supposed
+that I was honest.  I avoided those women who, by attaching
+themselves to me, or presenting me with a child, could bind my
+future.  Moreover, perhaps there may have been children or
+attachments; but I so arranged matters that I could not become
+aware of them.
+
+"And living thus, I considered myself a perfectly honest man.  I
+did not understand that debauchery does not consist simply in
+physical acts, that no matter what physical ignominy does not yet
+constitute debauchery, and that real debauchery consists in
+freedom from the moral bonds toward a woman with whom one enters
+into carnal relations, and I regarded THIS FREEDOM as a merit.  I
+remember that I once tortured myself exceedingly for having
+forgotten to pay a woman who probably had given herself to me
+through love.  I only became tranquil again when, having sent her
+the money, I had thus shown her that I did not consider myself as
+in any way bound to her.  Oh, do not shake your head as if you
+were in agreement with me (he cried suddenly with vehemence).  I
+know these tricks.  All of you, and you especially, if you are
+not a rare exception, have the same ideas that I had then.  If
+you are in agreement with me, it is now only.  Formerly you did
+not think so.  No more did I; and, if I had been told what I have
+just told you, that which has happened would not have happened. 
+However, it is all the same.  Excuse me (he continued): the truth
+is that it is frightful, frightful, frightful, this abyss of
+errors and debaucheries in which we live face to face with the
+real question of the rights of woman." . . .
+
+"What do you mean by the 'real' question of the rights of
+woman?"
+
+"The question of the nature of this special being, organized
+otherwise than man, and how this being and man ought to view the
+wife. . . .
+
+ 
+CHAPTER V.
+
+"Yes: for ten years I lived the most revolting existence, while
+dreaming of the noblest love, and even in the name of that love. 
+Yes, I want to tell you how I killed my wife, and for that I must
+tell you how I debauched myself.  I killed her before I knew her.
+
+I killed THE wife when I first tasted sensual joys without love,
+and then it was that I killed MY wife.  Yes, sir: it is only
+after having suffered, after having tortured myself, that I have
+come to understand the root of things, that I have come to
+understand my crimes.  Thus you will see where and how began the
+drama that has led me to misfortune.
+
+"It is necessary to go back to my sixteenth year, when I was
+still at school, and my elder brother a first-year student.  I
+had not yet known women but, like all the unfortunate children of
+our society, I was already no longer innocent.  I was tortured,
+as you were, I am sure, and as are tortured ninety-nine
+one-hundredths of our boys.  I lived in a frightful dread, I
+prayed to God, and I prostrated myself.
+
+"I was already perverted in imagination, but the last steps
+remained to be taken.  I could still escape, when a friend of my
+brother, a very gay student, one of those who are called good
+fellows,--that is, the greatest of scamps,--and who had taught us
+to drink and play cards, took advantage of a night of
+intoxication to drag us THERE.  We started.  My brother, as
+innocent as I, fell that night, and I, a mere lad of sixteen,
+polluted myself and helped to pollute a sister-woman, without
+understanding what I did.  Never had I heard from my elders that
+what I thus did was bad.  It is true that there are the ten
+commandments of the Bible; but the commandments are made only to
+be recited before the priests at examinations, and even then are
+not as exacting as the commandments in regard to the use of ut in
+conditional propositions.
+
+"Thus, from my elders, whose opinion I esteemed, I had never
+heard that this was reprehensible.  On the contrary, I had heard
+people whom I respected say that it was good.  I had heard that
+my struggles and my sufferings would be appeased after this act. 
+I had heard it and read it.  I had heard from my elders that it
+was excellent for the health, and my friends have always seemed
+to believe that it contained I know not what merit and valor.  So
+nothing is seen in it but what is praiseworthy.  As for the
+danger of disease, it is a foreseen danger.  Does not the
+government guard against it?  And even science corrupts us."
+
+"How so, science?" I asked.
+
+"Why, the doctors, the pontiffs of science. Who pervert young
+people by laying down such rules of hygiene?  Who pervert women
+by devising and teaching them ways by which not to have children?
+
+"Yes: if only a hundredth of the efforts spent in curing diseases
+were spent in curing debauchery, disease would long ago have
+ceased to exist, whereas now all efforts are employed, not in
+extirpating debauchery, but in favoring it, by assuring the
+harmlessness of the consequences. Besides, it is not a question
+of that.  It is a question of this frightful thing that has
+happened to me, as it happens to nine-tenths, if not more, not
+only of the men of our society, but of all societies, even
+peasants,--this frightful thing that I had fallen, and not
+because I was subjected to the natural seduction of a certain
+woman.  No, no woman seduced me.  I fell because the surroundings
+in which I found myself saw in this degrading thing only a
+legitimate function, useful to the health; because others saw in
+it simply a natural amusement, not only excusable, but even
+innocent in a young man. I did not understand that it was a fall,
+and I began to give myself to those pleasures (partly from desire
+and partly from necessity) which I was led to believe were
+characteristic of my age, just as I had begun to drink and smoke.
+
+"And yet there was in this first fall something peculiar and
+touching.  I remember that straightway I was filled with such a
+profound sadness that I had a desire to weep, to weep over the
+loss forever of my relations with woman.  Yes, my relations with
+woman were lost forever.  Pure relations with women, from that
+time forward, I could no longer have.  I had become what is
+called a voluptuary; and to be a voluptuary is a physical
+condition like the condition of a victim of the morphine habit,
+of a drunkard, and of a smoker.
+
+"Just as the victim of the morphine habit, the drunkard, the
+smoker, is no longer a normal man, so the man who has known
+several women for his pleasure is no longer normal?  He is
+abnormal forever.  He is a voluptuary.  Just as the drunkard and
+the victim of the morphine habit may be recognized by their face
+and manner, so we may recognize a voluptuary.  He may repress
+himself and struggle, but nevermore will he enjoy simple, pure,
+and fraternal relations toward woman.  By his way of glancing at
+a young woman one may at once recognize a voluptuary; and I
+became a voluptuary, and I have remained one.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+"Yes, so it is; and that went farther and farther with all sorts
+of variations.  My God! when I remember all my cowardly acts and
+bad deeds, I am frightened.  And I remember that 'me' who, during
+that period, was still the butt of his comrades' ridicule on
+account of his innocence.
+
+"And when I hear people talk of the gilded youth, of the
+officers, of the Parisians, and all these gentlemen, and myself,
+living wild lives at the age of thirty, and who have on our
+consciences hundreds of crimes toward women, terrible and varied,
+when we enter a parlor or a ball-room, washed, shaven, and
+perfumed, with very white linen, in dress coats or in uniform, as
+emblems of purity, oh, the disgust!  There will surely come a
+time, an epoch, when all these lives and all this cowardice will
+be unveiled!
+
+"So, nevertheless, I lived, until the age of thirty, without
+abandoning for a minute my intention of marrying, and building an
+elevated conjugal life; and with this in view I watched all young
+girls who might suit me.  I was buried in rottenness, and at the
+same time I looked for virgins, whose purity was worthy of me! 
+Many of them were rejected: they did not seem to me pure enough!
+
+"Finally I found one that I considered on a level with myself. 
+She was one of two daughters of a landed proprietor of Penza,
+formerly very rich and since ruined.  To tell the truth, without
+false modesty, they pursued me and finally captured me.  The
+mother (the father was away) laid all sorts of traps, and one of
+these, a trip in a boat, decided my future.
+
+"I made up my mind at the end of the aforesaid trip one night, by
+moonlight, on our way home, while I was sitting beside her.  I
+admired her slender body, whose charming shape was moulded by a
+jersey, and her curling hair, and I suddenly concluded that THIS
+WAS SHE.  It seemed to me on that beautiful evening that she
+understood all that I thought and felt, and I thought and felt
+the most elevating things.
+
+"Really, it was only the jersey that was so becoming to her, and
+her curly hair, and also the fact that I had spent the day beside
+her, and that I desired a more intimate relation.
+
+"I returned home enthusiastic, and I persuaded myself that she
+realized the highest perfection, and that for that reason she was
+worthy to be my wife, and the next day I made to her a proposal
+of marriage.
+
+"No, say what you will, we live in such an abyss of falsehood,
+that, unless some event strikes us a blow on the head, as in my
+case, we cannot awaken.  What confusion!  Out of the thousands of
+men who marry, not only among us, but also among the people,
+scarcely will you find a single one who has not previously
+married at least ten times.  (It is true that there now exist, at
+least so I have heard, pure young people who feel and know that
+this is not a joke, but a serious matter.  May God come to their
+aid!  But in my time there was not to be found one such in a
+thousand.)
+
+"And all know it, and pretend not to know it.  In all the novels
+are described down to the smallest details the feelings of the
+characters, the lakes and brambles around which they walk; but,
+when it comes to describing their GREAT love, not a word is
+breathed of what HE, the interesting character, has previously
+done, not a word about his frequenting of disreputable houses, or
+his association with nursery-maids, cooks, and the wives of
+others.
+
+"And if anything is said of these things, such IMPROPER novels
+are not allowed in the hands of young girls.  All men have the
+air of believing, in presence of maidens, that these corrupt
+pleasures, in which EVERYBODY takes part, do not exist, or exist
+only to a very small extent.  They pretend it so carefully that
+they succeed in convincing themselves of it.  As for the poor
+young girls, they believe it quite seriously, just as my poor
+wife believed it.
+
+"I remember that, being already engaged, I showed her my
+'memoirs,' from which she could learn more or less of my past,
+and especially my last liaison which she might perhaps have
+discovered through the gossip of some third party.  It was for
+this last reason, for that matter, that I felt the necessity of
+communicating these memoirs to her.  I can still see her fright,
+her despair, her bewilderment, when she had learned and
+understood it.  She was on the point of breaking the engagement. 
+What a lucky thing it would have been for both of us!"
+
+Posdnicheff was silent for a moment, and then resumed:--
+
+"After all, no!  It is better that things happened as they did,
+better!" he cried.  "It was a good thing for me.  Besides, it
+makes no difference.  I was saying that in these cases it is the
+poor young girls who are deceived.  As for the mothers, the
+mothers especially, informed by their husbands, they know all,
+and, while pretending to believe in the purity of the young man,
+they act as if they did not believe in it.
+
+"They know what bait must be held out to people for themselves
+and their daughters.  We men sin through ignorance, and a
+determination not to learn.  As for the women, they know very
+well that the noblest and most poetic love, as we call it,
+depends, not on moral qualities, but on the physical intimacy,
+and also on the manner of doing the hair, and the color and
+shape.
+
+"Ask an experienced coquette, who has undertaken to seduce a man,
+which she would prefer,--to be convicted, in presence of the man
+whom she is engaged in conquering, of falsehood, perversity,
+cruelty, or to appear before him in an ill-fitting dress, or a
+dress of an unbecoming color.  She will prefer the first
+alternative.  She knows very well that we simply lie when we talk
+of our elevated sentiments, that we seek only the possession of
+her body, and that because of that we will forgive her every sort
+of baseness, but will not forgive her a costume of an ugly shade,
+without taste or fit.
+
+"And these things she knows by reason, where as the maiden knows
+them only by instinct, like the animal.  Hence these abominable
+jerseys, these artificial humps on the back, these bare
+shoulders, arms, and throats.
+
+"Women, especially those who have passed through the school of
+marriage, know very well that conversations upon elevated
+subjects are only conversations, and that man seeks and desires
+the body and all that ornaments the body. Consequently, they act
+accordingly?  If we reject conventional explanations, and view
+the life of our upper and lower classes as it is, with all its
+shamelessness, it is only a vast perversity.  You do not share
+this opinion?  Permit me, I am going to prove it to you (said he,
+interrupting me).
+
+"You say that the women of our society live for a different
+interest from that which actuates fallen women.  And I say no,
+and I am going to prove it to you.  If beings differ from one
+another according to the purpose of their life, according to
+their INNER LIFE, this will necessarily be reflected also in
+their OUTER LIFE, and their exterior will be very different. 
+Well, then, compare the wretched, the despised, with the women of
+the highest society: the same dresses, the same fashions, the
+same perfumeries, the same passion for jewelry, for brilliant and
+very expensive articles, the same amusements, dances, music, and
+songs.  The former attract by all possible means; so do the
+latter.  No difference, none whatever!
+
+"Yes, and I, too, was captivated by jerseys, bustles, and curly
+hair.
+
+  
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+"And it was very easy to capture me, since I was brought up
+under artificial conditions, like cucumbers in a hothouse.  Our
+too abundant nourishment, together with complete physical
+idleness, is nothing but systematic excitement of the
+imagination.  The men of our society are fed and kept like
+reproductive stallions.  It is sufficient to close the
+valve,--that is, for a young man to live a quiet life for some
+time,--to produce as an immediate result a restlessness, which,
+becoming exaggerated by reflection through the prism of our
+unnatural life, provokes the illusion of love.
+
+"All our idyls and marriage, all, are the result for the most
+part of our eating.  Does that astonish you?  For my part, I am
+astonished that we do not see it.  Not far from my estate this
+spring some moujiks were working on a railway embankment.  You
+know what a peasant's food is,--bread, kvass,* onions.  With this
+frugal nourishment he lives, he is alert, he makes light work in
+the fields.  But on the railway this bill of fare becomes cacha
+and a pound of meat.  Only he restores this meat by sixteen hours
+of labor pushing loads weighing twelve hundred pounds.
+
+*Kvass, a sort of cider.
+
+ "And we, who eat two pounds of meat and game, we who absorb all
+sorts of heating drinks and food, how do we expend it?  In
+sensual excesses.  If the valve is open, all goes well; but close
+it, as I had closed it temporarily before my marriage, and
+immediately there will result an excitement which, deformed by
+novels, verses, music, by our idle and luxurious life, will give
+a love of the finest water.  I, too, fell in love, as everybody
+does, and there were transports, emotions, poesy; but really all
+this passion was prepared by mamma and the dressmakers.  If there
+had been no trips in boats, no well-fitted garments, etc., if my
+wife had worn some shapeless blouse, and I had seen her thus at
+her home, I should not have been seduced.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+"And note, also, this falsehood, of which all are guilty; the
+way in which marriages are made.  What could there be more
+natural?  The young girl is marriageable, she should marry.  What
+simpler, provided the young person is not a monster, and men can
+be found with a desire to marry?  Well, no, here begins a new
+hypocrisy.
+
+"Formerly, when the maiden arrived at a favorable age, her
+marriage was arranged by her parents.  That was done, that is
+done still, throughout humanity, among the Chinese, the Hindoos,
+the Mussulmans, and among our common people also.  Things are so
+managed in at least ninety-nine per cent. of the families of the
+entire human race.
+
+"Only we riotous livers have imagined that this way was bad, and
+have invented another. And this other,--what is it?  It is this. 
+The young girls are seated, and the gentlemen walk up and down
+before them, as in a bazaar, and make their choice.  The maidens
+wait and think,  but do not dare to say: 'Take me, young man, me
+and not her.  Look at these shoulders and the rest.'  We males
+walk up and down, and estimate the merchandise, and then we
+discourse upon the rights of woman, upon the liberty that she
+acquires, I know not how, in the theatrical halls."
+
+"But what is to be done?" said I to him. "Shall the woman make
+the advances?"
+
+"I do not know.  But, if it is a question of equality, let the
+equality be complete.  Though it has been found that to contract
+marriages through the agency of match-makers is humiliating, it
+is nevertheless a thousand times preferable to our system.  There
+the rights and the chances are equal; here the woman is a slave,
+exhibited in the market.  But as she cannot bend to her
+condition, or make advances herself, there begins that other and
+more abominable lie which is sometimes called GOING INTO SOCIETY,
+sometimes AMUSING ONE'S SELF, and which is really nothing but the
+hunt for a husband.
+
+"But say to a mother or to her daughter that they are engaged
+only in a hunt for a husband.  God!  What an offence!  Yet they
+can do nothing else, and have nothing else to do; and the
+terrible feature of it all is to see sometimes very young, poor,
+and innocent maidens haunted solely by such ideas.  If only, I
+repeat, it were done frankly; but it is always accompanied with
+lies and babble of this sort:--
+
+"'Ah, the descent of species!  How interesting it is!'
+
+"'Oh, Lily is much interested in painting.'
+
+"'Shall you go to the Exposition?  How charming it is!'
+
+"'And the troika, and the plays, and the symphony.  Ah, how
+adorable!'
+
+"'My Lise is passionately fond of music.'
+
+"'And you, why do you not share these convictions?'
+
+"And through all this verbiage, all have but one single idea:
+'Take me, take my Lise.  No, me!  Only try!"'
+
+  
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+"Do you know," suddenly continued Posdnicheff, "that this power
+of women from which the world suffers arises solely from what I
+have just spoken of?"
+
+"What do you mean by the power of women?" I said.  "Everybody, on
+the contrary, complains that women have not sufficient rights,
+that they are in subjection."
+
+"That's it; that's it exactly," said he, vivaciously.  "That is
+just what I mean, and that is the explanation of this
+extraordinary phenomenon, that on the one hand woman is reduced
+to the lowest degree of humiliation and on the other hand she
+reigns over everything.  See the Jews: with their power of money,
+they avenge their subjection, just as the women do.  'Ah! you
+wish us to be only merchants?  All right; remaining merchants, we
+will get possession of you,' say the Jews.  'Ah! you wish us to
+be only objects of sensuality?  All right; by the aid of
+sensuality we will bend you beneath our yoke,' say the women.
+
+"The absence of the rights of woman does not consist in the fact
+that she has not the right to vote, or the right to sit on the
+bench, but in the fact that in her affectional relations she is
+not the equal of man, she has not the right to abstain, to choose
+instead of being chosen.  You say that that would be abnormal. 
+Very well! But then do not let man enjoy these rights, while his
+companion is deprived of them, and finds herself obliged to make
+use of the coquetry by which she governs, so that the result is
+that man chooses 'formally,' whereas really it is woman who
+chooses.  As soon as she is in possession of her means, she
+abuses them, and acquires a terrible supremacy."
+
+"But where do you see this exceptional power?"
+
+"Where?  Why, everywhere, in everything.  Go see the stores in
+the large cities.  There are millions there, millions.  It is
+impossible to estimate the enormous quantity of labor that is
+expended there.  In nine-tenths of these stores is there anything
+whatever for the use of men?  All the luxury of life is demanded
+and sustained by woman.  Count the factories; the greater part of
+them are engaged in making feminine ornaments.  Millions of men,
+generations of slaves, die toiling like convicts simply to
+satisfy the whims of our companions.
+
+"Women, like queens, keep nine-tenths of the  human race as
+prisoners of war, or as prisoners at hard labor.  And all this
+because they have been humiliated, because they have been
+deprived of rights equal to those which men enjoy. They take
+revenge for our sensuality; they catch us in their nets.
+
+"Yes, the whole thing is there.  Women have made of themselves
+such a weapon to act upon the senses that a young man, and even
+an old man, cannot remain tranquil in their presence. Watch a
+popular festival, or our receptions or ball-rooms.  Woman well
+knows her influence there.  You will see it in her triumphant
+smiles.
+
+"As soon as a young man advances toward a woman, directly he
+falls under the influence of this opium, and loses his head. 
+Long ago I felt ill at ease when I saw a woman too well
+adorned,--whether a woman of the people with her red neckerchief
+and her looped skirt, or a woman of our own society in her
+ball-room dress.  But now it simply terrifies me.  I see in it a
+danger to men, something contrary to the laws; and I feel a
+desire to call a policeman, to appeal for defence from some
+quarter, to demand that this dangerous object be removed.
+
+"And this is not a joke, by any means.  I am convinced, I am
+sure, that the time will come--and perhaps it is not far
+distant--when the world will understand this, and will be
+astonished that a society could exist in which actions as harmful
+as those which appeal to sensuality by adorning the body as our
+companions do were allowed.  As well set traps along our public
+streets, or worse than that.
+
+  
+CHAPTER X.
+
+"That, then, was the way in which I was captured.  I was in
+love, as it is called; not only did she appear to me a perfect
+being, but I considered myself a white blackbird.  It is a
+commonplace fact that there is no one so low in the world that he
+cannot find some one viler than himself, and consequently puff
+with pride and self-contentment.  I was in that situation.  I did
+not marry for money.  Interest was foreign to the affair, unlike
+the marriages of most of my acquaintances, who married either for
+money or for relations.  First, I was rich, she was poor. 
+Second, I was especially proud of the fact that, while others
+married with an intention of continuing their polygamic life as
+bachelors, it was my firm intention to live monogamically after
+my engagement and the wedding, and my pride swelled immeasurably.
+
+"Yes, I was a wretch, convinced that I was an angel.  The period
+of my engagement did not last long.  I cannot remember those days
+without shame.  What an abomination!
+
+"It is generally agreed that love is a moral sentiment, a
+community of thought rather than of sense.  If that is the case,
+this community of thought ought to find expression in words and
+conversation.  Nothing of the sort.  It was extremely difficult
+for us to talk with each other. What a toil of Sisyphus was our
+conversation!  Scarcely had we thought of something to say, and
+said it, when we had to r‚sum‚ our silence and try to discover
+new subjects.  Literally, we did not know what to say to each
+other.  All that we could think of concerning the life that was
+before us and our home was said.
+
+"And then what?  If we had been animals, we should have known
+that we had not to talk.  But here, on the contrary, it was
+necessary to talk, and there were no resources!  For that which
+occupied our minds was not a thing to be expressed in words.
+
+"And then that silly custom of eating bon-bons, that brutal
+gluttony for sweetmeats, those abominable preparations for the
+wedding, those discussions with mamma upon the apartments, upon
+the sleeping-rooms, upon the bedding, upon the morning-gowns,
+upon the wrappers, the linen, the costumes!  Understand that if
+people married according to the old fashion, as this old man said
+just now, then these eiderdown coverlets and this bedding would
+all be sacred details; but with us, out of ten married people
+there is scarcely to be found one who, I do not say believes in
+sacraments (whether he believes or not is a matter of
+indifference to us), but believes in what he promises.  Out of a
+hundred men, there is scarcely one who has not married before,
+and out of fifty scarcely one who has not made up his mind to
+deceive his wife.
+
+"The great majority look upon this journey to the church as a
+condition necessary to the possession of a certain woman.  Think
+then of the supreme significance which material details must take
+on.  Is it not a sort of sale, in which a maiden is given over to
+a debauche, the sale being surrounded with the most agreeable
+details?
+
+  
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+"All marry in this way.  And I did like the rest.  If the young
+people who dream of the honeymoon only knew what a disillusion it
+is, and always a disillusion!  I really do not know why all think
+it necessary to conceal it.
+
+"One day I was walking among the shows in Paris, when, attracted
+by a sign, I entered an establishment to see a bearded woman and
+a water-dog.  The woman was a man in disguise, and the dog was an
+ordinary dog, covered with a sealskin, and swimming in a bath. 
+It was not in the least interesting, but the Barnum accompanied
+me to the exit very courteously, and, in addressing the people
+who were coming in, made an appeal to my testimony.  'Ask the
+gentleman if it is not worth seeing!  Come in, come in!  It only
+costs a franc!'  And in my confusion I did not dare to answer
+that there was nothing curious to be seen, and it was upon my
+false shame that the Barnum must have counted.
+
+"It must be the same with the persons who have passed through the
+abominations of the honeymoon.  They do not dare to undeceive
+their neighbor.  And I did the same.
+
+"The felicities of the honeymoon do not exist. On the contrary,
+it is a period of uneasiness, of shame, of pity, and, above all,
+of ennui,--of ferocious ennui.  It is something like the
+feeling of a youth when he is beginning to smoke.  He desires to
+vomit; he drivels, and swallows his drivel, pretending to enjoy
+this little amusement. The vice of marriage" . . .
+
+"What!  Vice?" I said.  "But you are talking of one of the most
+natural things."
+
+"Natural!" said he.  "Natural!  No, I consider on the contrary
+that it is against nature, and it is I, a perverted man, who have
+reached this conviction.  What would it be, then, if I had not
+known corruption?  To a young girl, to every unperverted young
+girl, it is an act extremely unnatural, just as it is to
+children.  My sister married, when very young, a man twice her
+own age, and who was utterly corrupt.  I remember how astonished
+we were the night of her wedding, when, pale and covered with
+tears, she fled from her husband, her whole body trembling,
+saying that for nothing in the world would she tell what he
+wanted of her.
+
+"You say natural?  It is natural to eat; that is a pleasant,
+agreeable function, which no one is ashamed to perform from the
+time of his birth.  No, it is not natural.  A pure young girl
+wants one thing,--children.  Children, yes, not a lover." . . .
+
+"But," said I, with astonishment, "how would the human race
+continue?"
+
+"But what is the use of its continuing?" he rejoined,
+vehemently.
+
+"What!  What is the use?  But then we should not exist."
+
+"And why is it necessary that we should exist?"
+
+"Why, to live, to be sure."
+
+"And why live?  The Schopenhauers, the Hartmanns, and all the
+Buddhists, say that the greatest happiness is Nirvana, Non-Life;
+and they are right in this sense,--that human happiness is
+coincident with the annihilation of 'Self.' Only they do not
+express themselves well.  They say that Humanity should
+annihilate itself to avoid its sufferings, that its object should
+be to destroy itself.  Now the object of Humanity cannot be to
+avoid sufferings by annihilation, since suffering is the result
+of activity.  The object of activity cannot consist in
+suppressing its consequences.  The object of Man, as of Humanity,
+is happiness, and, to attain it, Humanity has a law which it must
+carry out.  This law consists in the union of beings.  This union
+is thwarted by the passions.  And that is why, if the passions
+disappear, the union will be accomplished.  Humanity then will
+have carried out the law, and will have no further reason to
+exist."
+
+"And before Humanity carries out the law?"
+
+"In the meantime it will have the sign of the unfulfilled law,
+and the existence of physical love.  As long as this love shall
+exist, and because of it, generations will be born, one of which
+will finally fulfil the law.  When at last the law shall be
+fulfilled, the Human Race will be annihilated.  At least it is
+impossible for us to conceive of Life in the perfect union of
+people."
+
+  
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"Strange theory!" cried I.
+
+"Strange in what?  According to all the doctrines of the Church,
+the world will have an end. Science teaches the same fatal
+conclusions. Why, then, is it strange that the same thing should
+result from moral Doctrine?  'Let those who can, contain,' said
+Christ.  And I take this passage literally, as it is written. 
+That morality may exist between people in their worldly
+relations, they must make complete chastity their object.  In
+tending toward this end, man humiliates himself.  When he shall
+reach the last degree of humiliation, we shall have moral
+marriage.
+
+"But if man, as in our society, tends only toward physical love,
+though he may clothe it with pretexts and the false forms of
+marriage, he will have only permissible debauchery, he will know
+only the same immoral life in which I fell and caused my wife to
+fall, a life which we call the honest life of the family.  Think
+what a perversion of ideas must arise when the happiest situation
+of man, liberty, chastity, is looked upon as something wretched
+and ridiculous.  The highest ideal, the best situation of woman,
+to be pure, to be a vestal, a virgin, excites fear and laughter
+in our society.  How many, how many young girls sacrifice their
+purity to this Moloch of opinion by marrying rascals that they
+may not remain virgins,--that is, superiors! Through fear of
+finding themselves in that ideal state, they ruin themselves.
+
+"But I did not understand formerly, I did not understand that the
+words of the Gospel, that 'he who looks upon a woman to lust
+after her has already committed adultery,' do not apply to the
+wives of others, but notably and especially to our own wives.  I
+did not understand this, and I thought that the honeymoon and all
+of my acts during that period were virtuous, and that to satisfy
+one's desires with his wife is an eminently chaste thing.  Know,
+then, that I consider these departures, these isolations, which
+young married couples arrange with the permission of their
+parents, as nothing else than a license to engage in debauchery.
+
+"I saw, then, in this nothing bad or shameful, and, hoping for
+great joys, I began to live the honeymoon.  And very certainly
+none of these joys followed.  But I had faith, and was determined
+to have them, cost what they might.  But the more I tried to
+secure them, the less I succeeded.  All this time I felt anxious,
+ashamed, and weary.  Soon I began to suffer.  I believe that on
+the third or fourth day I found my wife sad and asked her the
+reason.  I began to embrace her, which in my opinion was all that
+she could desire.  She put me away with her hand, and began to
+weep.
+
+"At what?  She could not tell me.  She was filled with sorrow,
+with anguish.  Probably her tortured nerves had suggested to her
+the truth about the baseness of our relations, but she found no
+words in which to say it.  I began to question her; she answered
+that she missed her absent mother.  It seemed to me that she was
+not telling the truth.  I sought to console her by maintaining
+silence in regard to her parents.  I did not imagine that she
+felt herself simply overwhelmed, and that her parents had nothing
+to do with her sorrow.  She did not listen to me, and I accused
+her of caprice.  I began to laugh at her gently.  She dried her
+tears, and began to reproach me, in hard and wounding terms, for
+my selfishness and cruelty.
+
+"I looked at her.  Her whole face expressed hatred, and hatred of
+me.  I cannot describe to you the fright which this sight gave
+me.  'How? What?' thought I, 'love is the unity of souls, and
+here she hates me?  Me?  Why?  But it is impossible!  It is no
+longer she!'
+
+"I tried to calm her.  I came in conflict with an immovable and
+cold hostility, so that, having no time to reflect, I was seized
+with keen irritation.  We exchanged disagreeable remarks.  The
+impression of this first quarrel was terrible.  I say quarrel,
+but the term is inexact.  It was the sudden discovery of the
+abyss that had been dug between us.  Love was exhausted with the
+satisfaction of sensuality.  We stood face to face in our true
+light, like two egoists trying to procure the greatest possible
+enjoyment, like two individuals trying to mutually exploit each
+other.
+
+"So what I called our quarrel was our actual situation as it
+appeared after the satisfaction of sensual desire.  I did not
+realize that this cold hostility was our normal state, and that
+this first quarrel would soon be drowned under a new flood of the
+intensest sensuality.  I thought that we had disputed with each
+other, and had become reconciled, and that it would not happen
+again.  But in this same honeymoon there came a period of
+satiety, in which we ceased to be necessary to each other, and a
+new quarrel broke out.
+
+"It became evident that the first was not a matter of chance. 
+'It was inevitable,' I thought. This second quarrel stupefied me
+the more, because it was based on an extremely unjust cause. It
+was something like a question of money,--and never had I haggled
+on that score; it was even impossible that I should do so in
+relation to her.  I only remember that, in answer to some remark
+that I made, she insinuated that it was my intention to rule her
+by means of money, and that it was upon money that I based my
+sole right over her.  In short, something extraordinarily stupid
+and base, which was neither in my character nor in hers.
+
+"I was beside myself.  I accused her of indelicacy.  She made the
+same accusation against me, and the dispute broke out.  In her
+words, in the expression of her face, of her eyes, I noticed
+again the hatred that had so astonished me before.  With a
+brother, friends, my father, I had occasionally quarrelled, but
+never had there been between us this fierce spite.  Some time
+passed.  Our mutual hatred was again concealed beneath an access
+of sensual desire, and I again consoled myself with the
+reflection that these scenes were reparable faults.
+
+"But when they were repeated a third and a fourth time, I
+understood that they were not simply faults, but a fatality that
+must happen again.  I was no longer frightened, I was simply
+astonished that I should be precisely the one to live so
+uncomfortably with my wife, and that the same thing did not
+happen in other households.  I did not know that in all
+households the same sudden changes take place, but that all, like
+myself, imagine that it is a misfortune exclusively reserved for
+themselves alone, which they carefully conceal as shameful, not
+only to others, but to themselves, like a bad disease.
+
+"That was what happened to me.  Begun in the early days, it
+continued and increased with characteristics of fury that were
+ever more pronounced.  At the bottom of my soul, from the first
+weeks, I felt that I was in a trap, that I had what I did not
+expect, and that marriage is not a joy, but a painful trial. 
+Like everybody else, I refused to confess it (I should not have
+confessed it even now but for the outcome).  Now I am astonished
+to think that I did not see my real situation.  It was so easy to
+perceive it, in view of those quarrels, begun for reasons so
+trivial that afterwards one could not recall them.
+
+"Just as it often happens among gay young people that, in the
+absence of jokes, they laugh at their own laughter, so we found
+no reasons for our hatred, and we hated each other because hatred
+was naturally boiling up in us.  More extraordinary still was the
+absence of causes for reconciliation.
+
+"Sometimes words, explanations, or even tears, but sometimes, I
+remember, after insulting words, there tacitly followed embraces
+and declarations.  Abomination!  Why is it that I did not then
+perceive this baseness?
+
+ 
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+"All of us, men and women, are brought up in these aberrations
+of feeling that we call love.  I from childhood had prepared
+myself for this thing, and I loved, and I loved during all my
+youth, and I was joyous in loving.  It had been put into my head
+that it was the noblest and highest occupation in the world.  But
+when this expected feeling came at last, and I, a man, abandoned
+myself to it, the lie was pierced through and through. 
+Theoretically a lofty love is conceivable; practically it is an
+ignoble and degrading thing, which it is equally disgusting to
+talk about and to remember.  It is not in vain that nature has
+made ceremonies, but people pretend that the ignoble and the
+shameful is beautiful and lofty.
+
+"I will tell you brutally and briefly what were the first signs
+of my love.  I abandoned myself to beastly excesses, not only not
+ashamed of them, but proud of them, giving no thought to the
+intellectual life of my wife.  And not only did I not think of
+her intellectual life, I did not even consider her physical life.
+
+I was astonished at the origin of our hostility, and yet how
+clear it was!  This hostility is nothing but a protest of human
+nature against the beast that enslaves it.  It could not be
+otherwise.  This hatred was the hatred of accomplices in a crime.
+Was it not a crime that, this poor woman having become pregnant
+in the first month, our liaison  should have continued just the
+same?
+
+"You imagine that I am wandering from my story.  Not at all.  I
+am always giving you an account of the events that led to the
+murder of my wife.  The imbeciles!  They think that I killed my
+wife on the 5th of October.  It was long before that that I
+immolated her, just as they all kill now.  Understand well that
+in our society there is an idea shared by all that woman procures
+man pleasure (and vice versa, probably, but I know nothing of
+that, I only know my own case).  Wein, Weiber und Gesang.  So say
+the poets in their verses: Wine, women, and song!
+
+"If it were only that!  Take all the poetry, the painting, the
+sculpture, beginning with Pouschkine's 'Little Feet,' with 'Venus
+and Phryne,' and you will see that woman is only a means of
+enjoyment.  That is what she is at Trouba,* at Gratchevka, and in
+a court ball-room.  And think of this diabolical trick: if she
+were a thing without moral value, it might be said that woman is
+a fine morsel; but, in the first place, these knights assure us
+that they adore woman (they adore her and look upon her, however,
+as a means of enjoyment), then all assure us that they esteem
+woman.  Some give up their seats to her, pick up her
+handkerchief; others recognize in her a right to fill all
+offices, participate in government, etc., but, in spite of all
+that, the essential point remains the same.  She is, she remains,
+an object of sensual desire, and she knows it.  It is slavery,
+for slavery is nothing else than the utilization of the labor of
+some for the enjoyment of others.  That slavery may not exist
+people must refuse to enjoy the labor of others, and look upon it
+as a shameful act and as a sin.
+
+*A suburb of Moscow.
+
+
+"Actually, this is what happens.  They abolish the external
+form, they suppress the formal sales of slaves, and then they
+imagine and assure others that slavery is abolished.  They are
+unwilling to see that it still exists, since people, as before,
+like to profit by the labor of others, and think it good and
+just.  This being given, there will always be found beings
+stronger or more cunning than others to profit thereby.  The same
+thing happens in the emancipation of woman.  At bottom feminine
+servitude consists entirely in her assimilation with a means of
+pleasure.  They excite woman, they give her all sorts of rights
+equal to those of men, but they continue to look upon her as an
+object of sensual desire, and thus they bring her up from infancy
+and in public opinion.
+
+"She is always the humiliated and corrupt serf, and man remains
+always the debauched Master.  Yes, to abolish slavery, public
+opinion must admit that it is shameful to exploit one's neighbor,
+and, to make woman free, public opinion must admit that it is
+shameful to consider woman as an instrument of pleasure.
+
+"The emancipation of woman is not to be effected in the public
+courts or in the chamber of deputies, but in the sleeping
+chamber.  Prostitution is to be combated, not in the houses of
+ill-fame, but in the family.  They free woman in the public
+courts and in the chamber of deputies, but she remains an
+instrument.  Teach her, as she is taught among us, to look upon
+herself as such, and she will always remain an inferior being. 
+Either, with the aid of the rascally doctors, she will try to
+prevent conception, and descend, not to the level of an animal,
+but to the level of a thing; or she will be what she is in the
+great majority of cases,--sick, hysterical, wretched, without
+hope of spiritual progress." . . .
+
+"But why that?" I asked.
+
+"Oh! the most astonishing thing is that no one is willing to see
+this thing, evident as it is, which the doctors must understand,
+but which they take good care not to do.  Man does not wish to
+know the law of nature,--children.  But children are born and
+become an embarrassment.  Then man devises means of avoiding this
+embarrassment.  We have not yet reached the low level of Europe,
+nor Paris, nor the 'system of two children,' nor Mahomet.  We
+have discovered nothing, because we have given it no thought.  We
+feel that there is something bad in the two first means; but we
+wish to preserve the family, and our view of woman is still
+worse.
+
+"With us woman must be at the same time mistress and nurse, and
+her strength is not sufficient.  That is why we have hysteria,
+nervous attacks, and, among the peasants, witchcraft.  Note that
+among the young girls of the peasantry this state of things does
+not exist, but only among the wives, and the wives who live with
+their husbands.  The reason is clear, and this is the cause of
+the intellectual and moral decline of woman, and of her
+abasement.
+
+"If they would only reflect what a grand work for the wife is the
+period of gestation!  In her is forming the being who continues
+us, and this holy work is thwarted and rendered painful . . . by
+what?  It is frightful to think of it!  And after that they talk
+of the liberties and the rights of woman!  It is like the
+cannibals fattening their prisoners in order to devour them, and
+assuring these unfortunates at the same time that their rights
+and their liberties are guarded!"
+
+All this was new to me, and astonished me very much.
+
+"But if this is so," said I, "it follows that one may love his
+wife only once every two years; and as man" . . .
+
+"And as man has need of her, you are going to say.  At least, so
+the priests of science assure us.  I would force these priests to
+fulfil the function of these women, who, in their opinion, are
+necessary to man.  I wonder what song they would sing then. 
+Assure man that he needs brandy, tobacco, opium, and he will
+believe those poisons necessary.  It follows that God did not
+know how to arrange matters properly, since, without asking the
+opinions of the priests, he has combined things as they are.  Man
+needs, so they have decided, to satisfy his sensual desire, and
+here this function is disturbed by the birth and the nursing of
+children.
+
+"What, then, is to be done?  Why, apply to the priests; they will
+arrange everything, and they have really discovered a way.  When,
+then, will these rascals with their lies be uncrowned!  It is
+high time.  We have had enough of them.  People go mad, and shoot
+each other with revolvers, and always because of that!  And how
+could it be otherwise?
+
+"One would say that the animals know that descent continues their
+race, and that they follow a certain law in regard thereto.  Only
+man does not know this, and is unwilling to know it. He cares
+only to have as much sensual enjoyment as possible.  The king of
+nature,--man! In the name of his love he kills half the human
+race.  Of woman, who ought to be his aid in the movement of
+humanity toward liberty, he makes, in the name of his pleasures,
+not an aid, but an enemy.  Who is it that everywhere puts a check
+upon the progressive movement of humanity?  Woman.  Why is it so?
+
+For the reason that I have given, and for that reason only.
+
+  
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+"Yes, much worse than the animal is man when he does not live as
+a man.  Thus was I.  The horrible part is that I believed,
+inasmuch as I did not allow myself to be seduced by other women
+that I was leading an honest family life, that I was a very
+mortal being, and that if we  had quarrels, the fault was in my
+wife, and in her character.
+
+"But it is evident that the fault was not in her.  She was like
+everybody else, like the majority.  She was brought up according
+to the principles exacted by the situation of our society,--that
+is, as all the young girls of our wealthy classes, without
+exception, are brought up, and as they cannot fail to be brought
+up.  How many times we hear or read of reflections upon the
+abnormal condition of women, and upon what they ought to be.  But
+these are only vain words.  The education of women results from
+the real and not imaginary view which the world entertains of
+women's vocation.  According to this view, the condition of women
+consists in procuring pleasure and it is to that end that her
+education is directed.  From her infancy she is taught only those
+things that are calculated to increase her charm.  Every young
+girl is accustomed to think only of that.
+
+"As the serfs were brought up solely to please their masters, so
+woman is brought up to attract men.  It cannot be otherwise.  But
+you will say, perhaps, that that applies only to young girls who
+are badly brought up, but that there is another education, an
+education that is serious, in the schools, an education in the
+dead languages, an education in the institutions of midwifery, an
+education in medical courses, and in other courses.  It is
+false.
+
+"Every sort of feminine education has for its sole object the
+attraction of men.
+
+"Some attract by music or curly hair, others by science or by
+civic virtue.  The object is the same, and cannot be otherwise
+(since no other object exists),--to seduce man in order to
+possess him.  Imagine courses of instruction for women and
+feminine science without men,--that is, learned women, and men
+not KNOWING them as learned.  Oh, no!  No education, no
+instruction can change woman as long as her highest ideal shall
+be marriage and not virginity, freedom from sensuality.  Until
+that time she will remain a serf.  One need only imagine,
+forgetting the universality of the case, the conditions in which
+our young girls are brought up, to avoid astonishment at the
+debauchery of the women of our upper classes.  It is the opposite
+that would cause astonishment.
+
+"Follow my reasoning.  From infancy garments, ornaments,
+cleanliness, grace, dances, music, reading of poetry, novels,
+singing, the theatre, the concert, for use within and without,
+according as women listen, or practice themselves.  With that,
+complete physical idleness, an excessive care of the body, a vast
+consumption of sweetmeats; and God knows how the poor maidens
+suffer from their own sensuality, excited by all these things. 
+Nine out of ten are tortured intolerably during the first period
+of maturity, and afterward provided they do not marry at the age
+of twenty.  That is what we are unwilling to see, but those who
+have eyes see it all the same.  And even the majority of these
+unfortunate creatures are so excited by a hidden sensuality (and
+it is lucky if it is hidden) that they are fit for nothing.  They
+become animated only in the presence of men.  Their whole life is
+spent in preparations for coquetry, or in coquetry itself.  In
+the presence of men they become too animated; they begin to live
+by sensual energy.  But the moment the man goes away, the life
+stops.
+
+"And that, not in the presence of a certain man, but in the
+presence of any man, provided he is not utterly hideous.  You
+will say that this is an exception.  No, it is a rule.  Only in
+some it is made very evident, in other less so.  But no one lives
+by her own life; they are all dependent upon man.  They cannot be
+otherwise, since to them the attraction of the greatest number of
+men is the ideal of life (young girls and married women), and it
+is for this reason that they have no feeling stronger than that
+of the animal need of every female who tries to attract the
+largest number of males in order to increase the opportunities
+for choice.  So it is in the life of young girls, and so it
+continues during marriage.  In the life of young girls it is
+necessary in order to selection, and in marriage it is necessary
+in order to rule the husband.  Only one thing suppresses or
+interrupts these tendencies for a time,--namely, children,--and
+then only when the woman is not a monster,--that is, when she
+nurses her own children.  Here again the doctor interferes.
+
+"With my wife, who desired to nurse her own children, and who did
+nurse six of them, it happened that the first child was sickly. 
+The doctors, who cynically undressed her and felt of her
+everywhere, and whom I had to thank and pay for these
+acts,--these dear doctors decided that she ought not to nurse her
+child, and she was temporarily deprived of the only remedy for
+coquetry.  A nurse finished the nursing of this first-born,--that
+is to say, we profited by the poverty and ignorance of a woman to
+steal her from her own little one in favor of ours, and for that
+purpose we dressed her in a kakoschnik  trimmed with gold lace. 
+Nevertheless, that is not the question; but there was again
+awakened in my wife that coquetry which had been sleeping during
+the nursing period.  Thanks to that, she reawakened in me the
+torments of jealousy which I had formerly known, though in a much
+slighter degree.
+
+  
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+"Yes, jealousy, that is another of the secrets of marriage known
+to all and concealed by all.  Besides the general cause of the
+mutual hatred of husbands and wives resulting from complicity in
+the pollution of a human being, and also from other causes, the
+inexhaustible source of marital wounds is jealousy.  But by tacit
+consent it is determined to conceal them from all, and we conceal
+them.  Knowing them, each one supposes in himself that it is an
+unfortunate peculiarity, and not a common destiny.  So it was
+with me, and it had to be so.  There cannot fail to be jealousy
+between husbands and wives who live immorally.  If they cannot
+sacrifice their pleasures for the welfare of their child, they
+conclude therefrom, and truly, that they will not sacrifice their
+pleasures for, I will not say happiness and tranquillity (since
+one may sin in secret), but even for the sake of conscience. Each
+one knows very well that neither admits any high moral reasons
+for not betraying the other, since in their mutual relations they
+fail in the requirements of morality, and from that time distrust
+and watch each other.
+
+"Oh, what a frightful feeling of jealousy!  I do not speak of
+that real jealousy which has foundations (it is tormenting, but
+it promises an issue), but of that unconscious jealousy which
+inevitably accompanies every immoral marriage, and which, having
+no cause, has no end.  This jealousy is frightful.  Frightful,
+that is the word.
+
+"And this is it.  A young man speaks to my wife.  He looks at her
+with a smile, and, as it seems to me, he surveys her body.  How
+does he dare to think of her, to think of the possibility of a
+romance with her?  And how can she, seeing this, tolerate him? 
+Not only does she tolerate him, but she seems pleased.  I even
+see that she puts herself to trouble on his account.  And in my
+soul there rises such a hatred for her that each of her words,
+each gesture, disgusts me.  She notices it, she knows not what to
+do, and how assume an air of indifferent animation?  Ah!  I
+suffer!  That makes her gay, she is content.  And my hatred
+increases tenfold, but I do not dare to give it free force,
+because at the bottom of my soul I know that there are no real
+reasons for it, and I remain in my seat, feigning indifference,
+and exaggerating my attention and courtesy to HIM.
+
+"Then I get angry with myself.  I desire to leave the room, to
+leave them alone, and I do, in fact, go out; but scarcely am I
+outside when I am invaded by a fear of what is taking place
+within my absence.  I go in again, inventing some pretext.  Or
+sometimes I do not go in; I remain near the door, and listen. 
+How can she humiliate herself and humiliate me by placing me in
+this cowardly situation of suspicion and espionage?  Oh,
+abomination!  Oh, the wicked animal!  And he too, what does he
+think of you?  But he is like all men.  He is what I was before
+my marriage.  It gives him pleasure.  He even smiles when he
+looks at me, as much as to say: 'What have you to do with this? 
+It is my turn now.'
+
+"This feeling is horrible.  Its burn is unendurable.  To
+entertain this feeling toward any one, to once suspect a man of
+lusting after my wife, was enough to spoil this man forever in my
+eyes, as if he had been sprinkled with vitriol. Let me once
+become jealous of a being, and nevermore could I re-establish
+with him simple human relations, and my eyes flashed when I
+looked at him.
+
+"As for my wife, so many times had I enveloped her with this
+moral vitriol, with this jealous hatred, that she was degraded
+thereby.  In the periods of this causeless hatred I gradually
+uncrowned her.  I covered her with shame in my imagination.
+
+"I invented impossible knaveries.  I suspected, I am ashamed to
+say, that she, this queen of 'The Thousand and One Nights,'
+deceived me with my serf, under my very eyes, and laughing at me.
+
+Thus, with each new access of jealousy (I speak always of
+causeless jealousy), I entered into the furrow dug formerly by my
+filthy suspicions, and I continually deepened it.  She did the
+same thing.  If I have reasons to be jealous, she who knew my
+past had a thousand times more.  And she was more ill-natured in
+her jealousy than I.  And the sufferings that I felt from her
+jealousy were different, and likewise very painful.
+
+"The situation may be described thus.  We are living more or less
+tranquilly.  I am even gay and contented.  Suddenly we start a
+conversation on some most commonplace subject, and directly she
+finds herself disagreeing with me upon matters concerning which
+we have been generally in accord.  And furthermore I see that,
+without any necessity therefor, she is becoming irritated.  I
+think that she has a nervous attack,  or else that the subject of
+conversation is really disagreeable to her.  We talk of something
+else, and that begins again.  Again she torments me, and becomes
+irritated.  I am astonished and look for a reason.  Why?  For
+what?  She keeps silence, answers me with monosyllables,
+evidently making allusions to something.  I begin to divine that
+the reason of all this is that I have taken a few walks in the
+garden with her cousin, to whom I did not give even a thought.  I
+begin to divine, but I cannot say so.  If I say so, I confirm her
+suspicions.  I interrogate her, I question her.  She does not
+answer, but she sees that I understand, and that confirms her
+suspicions.
+
+"'What is the matter with you?' I ask.
+
+"'Nothing, I am as well as usual,' she answers.
+
+"And at the same time, like a crazy woman, she gives utterance to
+the silliest remarks, to the most inexplicable explosions of
+spite.
+
+"Sometimes I am patient, but at other times I break out with
+anger.  Then her own irritation is launched forth in a flood of
+insults, in charges of imaginary crimes and all carried to the
+highest degree by sobs, tears, and retreats through the house to
+the most improbable spots.  I go to look for her.  I am ashamed
+before people, before the children, but there is nothing to be
+done.  She is in a condition where I feel that she is ready for
+anything.  I run, and finally find her.  Nights of torture
+follow, in which both of us, with exhausted nerves, appease each
+other, after the most cruel words and accusations.
+
+"Yes, jealousy, causeless jealousy, is the condition of our
+debauched conjugal life.  And throughout my marriage never did I
+cease to feel it and to suffer from it.  There were two periods
+in which I suffered most intensely.  The first time was after the
+birth of our first child, when the doctors had forbidden my wife
+to nurse it.  I was particularly jealous, in the first place,
+because my wife felt that restlessness peculiar to animal matter
+when the regular course of life is interrupted without occasion. 
+But especially was I jealous because, having seen with what
+facility she had thrown off her moral duties as a mother, I
+concluded rightly, though unconsciously, that she would throw off
+as easily her conjugal duties, feeling all the surer of this 
+because she was in perfect health, as was shown by the fact that,
+in spite of the prohibition of the dear doctors, she nursed her
+following children, and even very well."
+
+"I see that you have no love for the doctors," said I, having
+noticed Posdnicheff's extraordinarily spiteful expression of face
+and tone of voice whenever he spoke of them.
+
+"It is not a question of loving them or of not loving them.  They
+have ruined my life, as they have ruined the lives of thousands
+of beings before me, and I cannot help connecting the consequence
+with the cause.  I conceive that they desire, like the lawyers
+and the rest, to make money.  I would willingly have given them
+half of my income--and any one would have done it in my place,
+understanding what they do--if they had consented not to meddle
+in my conjugal life, and to keep themselves at a distance.  I
+have compiled no statistics, but I know scores of cases--in
+reality, they are innumerable--where they have killed, now a
+child in its mother's womb, asserting positively that the mother
+could not give birth to it (when the mother could give birth to
+it very well), now mothers, under the pretext of a so-called
+operation.  No one has counted these murders, just as no one
+counted the murders of the Inquisition, because it was supposed
+that they were committed for the benefit of humanity. 
+Innumerable are the crimes of the doctors!  But all these crimes
+are nothing compared with the materialistic demoralization which
+they introduce into the world through women.  I say nothing of
+the fact that, if it were to follow their advice,--thanks to the
+microbe which they see everywhere,--humanity, instead of tending
+to union, would proceed straight to complete disunion. 
+Everybody, according to their doctrine, should isolate himself,
+and never remove from his mouth a syringe filled with phenic acid
+(moreover, they have found out now that it does no good).  But I
+would pass over all these things.  The supreme poison is the
+perversion of people, especially of women.  One can no longer say
+now: 'You live badly, live better.' One can no longer say it
+either to himself or to others, for, if you live badly (say the
+doctors), the cause is in the nervous system or in something
+similar, and it is necessary to go to consult them, and they will
+prescribe for you thirty-five copecks' worth of remedies to be
+bought at the drug-store, and you must swallow them.  Your
+condition grows worse?  Again to the doctors, and more remedies! 
+An excellent business!
+
+"But to return to our subject.  I was saying that my wife nursed
+her children well, that the nursing and the gestation of the
+children, and the children in general, quieted my tortures of
+jealousy, but that, on the other hand, they provoked torments of
+a different sort.
+
+  
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+"The children came rapidly, one after another, and there
+happened what happens in our society with children and doctors. 
+Yes, children, maternal love, it is a painful thing.  Children,
+to a woman of our society, are not a joy, a pride, nor a
+fulfilment of her vocation, but a cause of fear, anxiety, and
+interminable suffering, torture.  Women say it, they think it,
+and they feel it too.  Children to them are really a torture, not
+because they do not wish to give birth to them, nurse them, and
+care for them (women with a strong maternal instinct--and such
+was my wife--are ready to do that), but because the children may
+fall sick and die.  They do not wish to give birth to them, and
+then not love them; and when they love, they do not wish to feel
+fear for the child's health and life.  That is why they do not
+wish to nurse them.  'If I nurse it,' they say, 'I shall become
+too fond of it.'  One would think that they preferred
+india-rubber children, which could neither be sick nor die, and
+could always be repaired.  What an entanglement in the brains of
+these poor women!  Why such abominations to avoid pregnancy, and
+to avoid the love of the little ones?
+
+"Love, the most joyous condition of the soul, is represented as a
+danger.  And why?  Because, when a man does not live as a man, he
+is worse than a beast.  A woman cannot look upon a child
+otherwise than as a pleasure.  It is true that it is painful to
+give birth to it, but what little hands! . . .  Oh, the little
+hands!  Oh, the little feet!  Oh, its smile!  Oh, its little
+body! Oh, its prattle!  Oh, its hiccough!  In a word, it is a
+feeling of animal, sensual maternity.  But  as for any idea as to
+the mysterious significance of the appearance of a new human
+being to replace us, there is scarcely a sign of it.
+
+"Nothing of it appears in all that is said and done.  No one has
+any faith now in a baptism of the child, and yet that was nothing
+but a reminder of the human significance of the newborn babe.
+
+"They have rejected all that, but they have not replaced it, and
+there remain only the dresses, the laces, the little hands, the
+little feet, and whatever exists in the animal.  But the animal
+has neither imagination, nor foresight, nor reason, nor a doctor.
+
+No! not even a doctor!  The chicken droops its head, overwhelmed,
+or the calf dies; the hen clucks and the cow lows for a time, and
+then these beasts continue to live, forgetting what has happened.
+
+With us, if the child falls sick, what is to be done, how to care
+for it, what doctor to call, where to go?  If it dies, there will
+be no more little hands or little feet, and then what is the use
+of the sufferings endured?  The cow does not ask all that, and
+this is why children are a source of misery.  The cow has no
+imagination, and for that reason cannot think how it might have
+saved the child if it had done this or that, and its grief,
+founded in its physical being, lasts but a very short time.  It
+is only a condition, and not that sorrow which becomes
+exaggerated to the point of despair, thanks to idleness and
+satiety.  The cow has not that reasoning faculty which would
+enable it to ask the why.  Why endure all these tortures? What
+was the use of so much love, if the little ones were to die?  The
+cow has no logic which tells it to have no more children, and, if
+any come accidentally, to neither love nor nurse them, that it
+may not suffer.  But our wives reason, and reason in this way,
+and that is why I said that, when a man does not live as a man,
+he is beneath the animal."
+
+"But then, how is it necessary to act, in your opinion, in order
+to treat children humanly?" I asked.
+
+"How?  Why, love them humanly."
+
+"Well, do not mothers love their children?"
+
+"They do not love them humanly, or very seldom do, and that is
+why they do not love them even as dogs.  Mark this, a hen, a
+goose, a wolf, will always remain to woman inaccessible ideals of
+animal love.  It is a rare thing for a woman to throw herself, at
+the peril of her life, upon an elephant to snatch her child away,
+whereas a hen or a sparrow will not fail to fly at a dog and
+sacrifice itself utterly for its children.  Observe this, also. 
+Woman has the power to limit her physical love for her children,
+which an animal cannot do.  Does that mean that, because of this,
+woman is inferior to the animal?  No.  She is superior (and even
+to say superior is unjust, she is not superior, she is
+different), but she has other duties, human duties.  She can
+restrain herself in the matter of animal love, and transfer her
+love to the soul of the child.  That is what woman's role should
+be, and that is precisely what we do not see in our society. We
+read of the heroic acts of mothers who sacrifice their children
+in the name of a superior idea, and these things seem to us like
+tales of the ancient world, which do not concern us.  And yet I
+believe that, if the mother has not some ideal, in the name of
+which she can sacrifice the animal feeling, and if this force
+finds no employment, she will transfer it to chimerical attempts
+to physically preserve her child, aided in this task by the
+doctor, and she will suffer as she does suffer.
+
+"So it was with my wife.  Whether there was one child or five,
+the feeling remained the same.  In fact, it was a little better
+when there had been five.  Life was always poisoned with fear for
+the children, not only from their real or imaginary diseases, but
+even by their simple presence.  For my part, at least, throughout
+my conjugal life, all my interests and all my happiness depended
+upon the health of my children, their condition, their studies. 
+Children, it is needless to say, are a serious consideration; but
+all ought to live, and in our days parents can no longer live. 
+Regular life does not exist for them.  The whole life of the
+family hangs by a hair.  What a terrible thing it is to suddenly
+receive the news that little Basile is vomiting, or that Lise has
+a cramp in the stomach!  Immediately you abandon everything, you
+forget everything, everything becomes nothing.  The essential
+thing is the doctor, the enema, the temperature.  You cannot
+begin a conversation but little Pierre comes running in with an
+anxious air to ask if he may eat an apple, or what jacket he
+shall put on, or else it is the servant who enters with a
+screaming baby.
+
+"Regular, steady family life does not exist.  Where you live, and
+consequently what you do, depends upon the health of the little
+ones, the health of the little ones depends upon nobody, and,
+thanks to the doctors, who pretend to aid health, your entire
+life is disturbed.  It is a perpetual peril.  Scarcely do we
+believe ourselves out of it when a new danger comes: more
+attempts to save.  Always the situation of sailors on a
+foundering vessel.  Sometimes it seemed to me that this was done
+on purpose, that my wife feigned anxiety in order to conquer me,
+since that solved the question so simply for her benefit.  It
+seemed to me that all that she did at those times was done for
+its effect upon me, but now I see that she herself, my wife,
+suffered and was tortured on account of the little ones, their
+health, and their diseases.
+
+"A torture to both of us, but to her the children were also a
+means of forgetting herself, like an intoxication.  I often
+noticed, when she was very sad, that she was relieved, when a
+child fell sick, at being able to take refuge in this
+intoxication.  It was involuntary intoxication, because as yet
+there was nothing else.  On every side we heard that Mrs.
+So-and-so had lost children, that Dr. So-and-so had saved the
+child of Mrs. So-and-so, and that in a certain family all had
+moved from the house in which they were living, and thereby saved
+the little ones.  And the doctors, with a serious air, confirmed
+this, sustaining my wife in her opinions.  She was not prone to
+fear, but the doctor dropped some word, like corruption of the
+blood, scarlatina, or else--heaven help us--diphtheria, and off
+she went.
+
+"It was impossible for it to be otherwise.  Women in the old days
+had the belief that 'God has given, God has taken away,' that the
+soul of the little angel is going to heaven, and that it is
+better to die innocent than to die in sin.  If the women of
+to-day had something like this faith, they could endure more
+peacefully the sickness of their children.  But of all that there
+does not remain even a trace.  And yet it is necessary to believe
+in something; consequently they stupidly believe in medicine, and
+not even in medicine, but in the doctor.  One believes in X,
+another in Z, and, like all believers, they do not see the idiocy
+of their beliefs.  They believe quia absurdum, because, in
+reality, if they did not believe in a stupid way, they would see
+the vanity of all that these brigands prescribe for them.
+Scarlatina is a contagious disease; so, when one lives in a large
+city, half the family has to move away from its residence (we did
+it twice), and yet every man in the city is a centre through
+which pass innumerable diameters, carrying threads of all sorts
+of contagions.  There is no obstacle: the baker, the tailor, the
+coachman, the laundresses.
+
+"And I would undertake, for every man who moves on account of
+contagion, to find in his new dwelling-place another contagion
+similar, if not the same.
+
+"But that is not all.  Every one knows rich people who, after a
+case of diphtheria, destroy everything in their residences, and
+then fall sick in houses newly built and furnished.  Every one
+knows, likewise, numbers of men who come in contact with sick
+people and do not get infected. Our anxieties are due to the
+people who circulate tall stories.  One woman says that she has
+an excellent doctor.  'Pardon me,' answers the other, 'he killed
+such a one,' or such a one. And vice versa.  Bring her another,
+who knows no more, who learned from the same books, who treats
+according to the same formulas, but who goes about in a carriage,
+and asks a hundred roubles a visit, and she will have faith in
+him.
+
+"It all lies in the fact that our women are savages.  They have
+no belief in God, but some of them believe in the evil eye, and
+the others in doctors who charge high fees.  If they had faith
+they would know that scarlatina, diphtheria, etc., are not so
+terrible, since they cannot disturb that which man can and should
+love,--the soul. There can result from them only that which none
+of us can avoid,--disease and death.  Without faith in God, they
+love only physically, and all their energy is concentrated upon
+the preservation of life, which cannot be preserved, and which
+the doctors promise the fools of both sexes to save.  And from
+that time there is nothing to be done; the doctors must be
+summoned.
+
+"Thus the presence of the children not only did not improve our
+relations as husband and wife, but, on the contrary, disunited
+us.  The children became an additional cause of dispute, and the
+larger they grew, the more they became an instrument of struggle.
+
+One would have said that we used them as weapons with which to
+combat each other.  Each of us had his favorite.  I made use of
+little Basile (the eldest), she of Lise.  Further, when the
+children reached an age where their characters began to be
+defined, they became allies, which we drew each in his or her own
+direction.  They suffered horribly from this, the poor things,
+but we, in our perpetual hubbub, were not clear-headed enough to
+think of them.  The little girl was devoted to me, but the eldest
+boy, who resembled my wife, his favorite, often inspired me with
+dislike.
+
+  
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+"We lived at first in the country, then in the city, and, if the
+final misfortune had not happened, I should have lived thus until
+my old age and should then have believed that I had had a good
+life,--not too good, but, on the other hand, not bad,--an
+existence such as other people lead.  I should not have
+understood the abyss of misfortune and ignoble falsehood in which
+I floundered about, feeling that something was not right.  I
+felt, in the first place, that I, a man, who, according to my
+ideas, ought to be the master, wore the petticoats, and that I
+could not get rid of them.  The principal cause of my subjection
+was the children.  I should have liked to free myself, but I
+could not.  Bringing up the children, and resting upon them, my
+wife ruled.  I did not then realize that she could not help
+ruling, especially because, in marrying, she was morally superior
+to me, as every young girl is incomparably superior to the man,
+since she is incomparably purer.  Strange thing!  The ordinary
+wife in our society is a very commonplace person or worse,
+selfish, gossiping, whimsical, whereas the ordinary young girl,
+until the age of twenty, is a charming being, ready for
+everything that is beautiful and lofty.  Why is this so? 
+Evidently because husbands pervert them, and lower them to their
+own level.
+
+"In truth, if boys and girls are born equal, the little girls
+find themselves in a better situation.  In the first place, the
+young girl is not subjected to the perverting conditions to which
+we are subjected.  She has neither cigarettes, nor wine, nor
+cards, nor comrades, nor public houses, nor public functions. 
+And then the chief thing is that she is physically pure, and that
+is why, in marrying, she is superior to her husband.  She is
+superior to man as a young girl, and when she becomes a wife in
+our society, where there is no need to work in order to live, she
+becomes superior, also, by the gravity of the acts of generation,
+birth, and nursing.
+
+"Woman, in bringing a child into the world, and giving it her
+bosom, sees clearly that her affair is more serious than the
+affair of man, who sits in the Zemstvo, in the court.  She knows
+that in these functions the main thing is money, and money can be
+made in different ways, and for that very reason money is not
+inevitably necessary, like nursing a child.  Consequently woman
+is necessarily superior to man, and must rule.  But man, in our
+society, not only does not recognize this, but, on the contrary,
+always looks upon her from the height of his grandeur, despising
+what she does.
+
+"Thus my wife despised me for my work at the Zemstvo, because she
+gave birth to children and nursed them.  I, in turn, thought that
+woman's labor was most contemptible, which one might and should
+laugh at.
+
+"Apart from the other motives, we were also separated by a mutual
+contempt.  Our relations grew ever more hostile, and we arrived
+at that period when, not only did dissent provoke hostility, but
+hostility provoked dissent.  Whatever she might say, I was sure
+in advance to hold a contrary opinion; and she the same.  Toward
+the fourth year of our marriage it was tacitly decided between us
+that no intellectual community was possible, and we made no
+further attempts at it.  As to the simplest objects, we each held
+obstinately to our own opinions.  With strangers we talked upon
+the most varied and most intimate matters, but not with each
+other.  Sometimes, in listening to my wife talk with others in my
+presence, I said to myself: 'What a woman! Everything that she
+says is a lie!'  And I was astonished that the person with whom
+she was conversing did not see that she was lying.  When we were
+together; we were condemned to silence, or to conversations
+which, I am sure, might have been carried on by animals.
+
+"'What time is it?  It is bed-time.  What is there for dinner
+to-day?  Where shall we go?  What is there in the newspaper?  The
+doctor must be sent for, Lise has a sore throat.'
+
+"Unless we kept within the extremely narrow limits of such
+conversation, irritation was sure to ensue.  The presence of a
+third person relieved us, for through an intermediary we could
+still communicate.  She probably believed that she was always
+right.  As for me, in my own eyes, I was a saint beside her.
+
+"The periods of what we call love arrived as often as formerly. 
+They were more brutal, without refinement, without ornament; but
+they were short, and generally followed by periods of irritation
+without cause, irritation fed by the most trivial pretexts.  We
+had spats about the coffee, the table-cloth, the carriage, games
+of cards,--trifles, in short, which could not be of the least
+importance to either of us.  As for me, a terrible execration was
+continually boiling up within me.  I watched her pour the tea,
+swing her foot, lift her spoon to her mouth, and blow upon hot
+liquids or sip them, and I detested her as if these had been so
+many crimes.
+
+"I did not notice that these periods of irritation depended very
+regularly upon the periods of love.  Each of the latter was
+followed by one of the former.  A period of intense love was
+followed by a long period of anger; a period of mild love induced
+a mild irritation.  We did not understand that this love and this
+hatred were two opposite faces of the same animal feeling.  To
+live thus would be terrible, if one understood the philosophy of
+it.  But we did not perceive this, we did not analyze it.  It is
+at once the torture and the relief of man that, when he lives
+irregularly, he can cherish illusions as to the miseries of his
+situation.  So did we.  She tried to forget herself in sudden and
+absorbing occupations, in household duties, the care of the
+furniture, her dress and that of her children, in the education
+of the latter, and in looking after their health.  These were
+occupations that did not arise from any immediate necessity, but
+she accomplished them as if her life and that of her children
+depended on whether the pastry was allowed to burn, whether a
+curtain was hanging properly, whether a dress was a success,
+whether a lesson was well learned, or whether a medicine was
+swallowed.
+
+"I saw clearly that to her all this was, more than anything else,
+a means of forgetting, an intoxication, just as hunting,
+card-playing, and my functions at the Zemstvo served the same
+purpose for me.  It is true that in addition I had an
+intoxication literally speaking,--tobacco, which I smoked in
+large quantities, and wine, upon which I did not get drunk, but
+of which I took too much.  Vodka before meals, and during meals
+two glasses of wine, so that a perpetual mist concealed the
+turmoil of existence.
+
+"These new theories of hypnotism, of mental maladies, of hysteria
+are not simple stupidities, but dangerous or evil stupidities. 
+Charcot, I am sure, would have said that my wife was hysterical,
+and of me he would have said that I was an abnormal being, and he
+would have wanted to treat me.  But in us there was nothing
+requiring treatment.  All this mental malady was the simple
+result of the fact that we were living immorally.  Thanks to this
+immoral life, we suffered, and, to stifle our sufferings, we
+tried abnormal means, which the doctors call the 'symptoms' of a
+mental malady,--hysteria.
+
+"There was no occasion in all this to apply for treatment to
+Charcot or to anybody else. Neither suggestion nor bromide would
+have been effective in working our cure.  The needful thing was
+an examination of the origin of the evil.  It is as when one is
+sitting on a nail; if you see the nail, you see that which is
+irregular in your life, and you avoid it.  Then the pain stops,
+without any necessity of stifling it.  Our pain arose from the
+irregularity of our life, and also my jealousy, my irritability,
+and the necessity of keeping myself in a state of perpetual
+semi-intoxication by hunting, card-playing, and, above all, the
+use of wine and tobacco.  It was because of this irregularity
+that my wife so passionately pursued her occupations.  The sudden
+changes of her disposition, from extreme sadness to extreme
+gayety, and her babble, arose from the need of forgetting
+herself, of forgetting her life, in the continual intoxication of
+varied and very brief occupations.
+
+"Thus we lived in a perpetual fog, in which we did not
+distinguish our condition.  We were like two galley-slaves
+fastened to the same ball, cursing each other, poisoning each
+other's existence, and trying to shake each other off.  I was
+still unaware that ninety-nine families out of every hundred live
+in the same hell, and that it cannot be otherwise.  I had not
+learned this fact from others or from myself.  The coincidences
+that are met in regular, and even in irregular life, are
+surprising.  At the very period when the life of parents becomes
+impossible, it becomes indispensable that they go to the city to
+live, in order to educate their children.  That is what we did."
+
+Posdnicheff became silent, and twice there escaped him, in the
+half-darkness, sighs, which at that moment seemed to me like
+suppressed sobs. Then he continued.
+
+  
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+"So we lived in the city.  In the city the wretched feel less
+sad.  One can live there a hundred years without being noticed,
+and be dead a long time before anybody will notice it.  People
+have no time to inquire into your life. All are absorbed. 
+Business, social relations, art, the health of children, their
+education.  And there are visits that must be received and made;
+it is necessary to see this one, it is necessary to hear that one
+or the other one.  In the city there are always one, two, or
+three celebrities that it is indispensable that one should visit.
+
+Now one must care for himself, or care for such or such a little
+one, now it is the professor, the private tutor, the governesses,
+. . . and life is absolutely empty.  In this activity we were
+less conscious of the sufferings of our cohabitation.  Moreover,
+in the first of it, we had a superb occupation,--the arrangement
+of the new dwelling, and then, too, the moving from the city to
+the country, and from the country to the city.
+
+"Thus we spent a winter.  The following winter an incident
+happened to us which passed unnoticed, but which was the
+fundamental cause of all that happened later.  My wife was
+suffering, and the rascals (the doctors) would not permit her to
+conceive a child, and taught her how to avoid it.  I was
+profoundly disgusted.  I struggled vainly against it, but she
+insisted frivolously and obstinately, and I surrendered.  The
+last justification of our life as wretches was thereby
+suppressed, and life became baser than ever.
+
+"The peasant and the workingman need children, and hence their
+conjugal relations have a justification.  But we, when we have a
+few children, have no need of any more.  They make a superfluous
+confusion of expenses and joint heirs, and are an embarrassment. 
+Consequently we have no excuses for our existence as wretches,
+but we are so deeply degraded that we do not see the necessity of
+a justification.  The majority of people in contemporary society
+give themselves up to this debauchery without the slightest
+remorse.  We have no conscience left, except, so to speak, the
+conscience of public opinion and of the criminal code.  But in
+this matter neither of these consciences is struck.  There is not
+a being in society who blushes at it. Each one practices it,--X,
+Y, Z, etc.  What is the use of multiplying beggars, and depriving
+ourselves of the joys of social life?  There is no necessity of
+having conscience before the criminal code, or of fearing it:
+low girls, soldiers' wives who throw their children into ponds or
+wells, these certainly must be put in prison.  But with us the
+suppression is effected opportunely and properly.
+
+"Thus we passed two years more.  The method prescribed by the
+rascals had evidently succeeded.  My wife had grown stouter and
+handsomer.  It was the beauty of the end of summer.  She felt it,
+and paid much attention to her person.  She had acquired that
+provoking beauty that stirs men.  She was in all the brilliancy
+of the wife of thirty years, who conceives no children, eats
+heartily, and is excited.  The very sight of her was enough to
+frighten one. She was like a spirited carriage-horse that has
+long been idle, and suddenly finds itself without a bridle.  As
+for my wife, she had no bridle, as for that matter, ninety-nine
+hundredths of our women have none."
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Posdnicheff's face had become transformed; his eyes were
+pitiable; their expression seemed strange, like that of another
+being than himself; his moustache and beard turned up toward the
+top of his face; his nose was diminished, and his mouth enlarged,
+immense, frightful.
+
+"Yes," he resumed "she had grown stouter since ceasing to
+conceive, and her anxieties about her children began to
+disappear.  Not even to disappear.  One would have said that she
+was waking from a long intoxication, that on coming to herself
+she had perceived the entire universe with its joys, a whole
+world in which she had not learned to live, and which she did not
+understand.
+
+"'If only this world shall not vanish!  When time is past, when
+old age comes, one cannot recover it.'  Thus, I believe, she
+thought, or rather felt.  Moreover, she could neither think nor
+feel otherwise.  She had been brought up in this idea that there
+is in the world but one thing worthy of attention,--love.  In
+marrying, she had known something of this love, but very far from
+everything that she had understood as promised her, everything
+that she expected.  How many disillusions!  How much suffering!
+And an unexpected torture,--the children!  This torture had told
+upon her, and then, thanks to the obliging doctor, she had
+learned that it is possible to avoid having children.  That had
+made her glad.  She had tried, and she was now revived for the
+only thing that she knew,--for love.  But love with a husband
+polluted by jealousy and ill-nature was no longer her ideal.  She
+began to think of some other tenderness; at least, that is what I
+thought.  She looked about her as if expecting some event or some
+being.  I noticed it, and I could not help being anxious.
+
+"Always, now, it happened that, in talking with me through a
+third party (that is, in talking with others, but with the
+intention that I should hear), she boldly expressed,--not
+thinking that an hour before she had said the opposite,--half
+joking, half seriously, this idea that maternal anxieties are a
+delusion; that it is not worth while to sacrifice one's life to
+children.  When one is young, it is necessary to enjoy life.  So
+she occupied herself less with the children, not with the same
+intensity as formerly, and paid more and more attention to
+herself, to her face,--although she concealed it,--to her
+pleasures, and even to her perfection from the worldly point of
+view.  She began to devote herself passionately to the piano,
+which had formerly stood forgotten in the corner.  There, at the
+piano, began the adventure.
+
+"The MAN appeared."
+
+Posdnicheff seemed embarrassed, and twice again there escaped him
+that nasal sound of which I spoke above.  I thought that it gave
+him pain to refer to the MAN, and to remember him.  He made an
+effort, as if to break down the obstacle that embarrassed him,
+and continued with determination.
+
+"He was a bad man in my eyes, and not because he has played such
+an important role in my life, but because he was really such. 
+For the rest, from the fact that he was bad, we must conclude
+that he was irresponsible.  He was a musician, a violinist.  Not
+a professional musician, but half man of the world, half artist. 
+His father, a country proprietor, was a neighbor of my father's. 
+The father had become ruined, and the children, three boys, were
+all sent away.  Our man, the youngest, was sent to his godmother
+at Paris.  There they placed him in the Conservatory, for he
+showed a taste for music.  He came out a violinist, and played in
+concerts."
+
+On the point of speaking evil of the other, Posdnicheff checked
+himself, stopped, and said suddenly:
+
+"In truth, I know not how he lived.  I only know that that year
+he came to Russia, and came to see me.  Moist eyes of almond
+shape, smiling red lips, a little moustache well waxed, hair
+brushed in the latest fashion, a vulgarly pretty face,--what the
+women call 'not bad,'--feebly built physically, but with no
+deformity; with hips as broad as a woman's; correct, and
+insinuating himself into the familiarity of people as far as
+possible, but having that keen sense that quickly detects a false
+step and retires in reason,--a man, in short, observant of the
+external rules of dignity, with that special Parisianism that is
+revealed in buttoned boots, a gaudy cravat, and that something
+which foreigners pick up in Paris, and which, in its peculiarity
+and novelty, always has an influence on our women.  In his
+manners an external and artificial gayety, a way, you know, of
+referring to everything by hints, by unfinished fragments, as if
+everything that one says you knew already, recalled it, and could
+supply the omissions.  Well, he, with his music, was the cause of
+all.
+
+"At the trial the affair was so represented that everything
+seemed attributable to jealousy.  It is false,--that is, not
+quite false, but there was something else.  The verdict was
+rendered that I was a deceived husband, that I had killed in
+defence of my sullied honor (that is the way they put it in their
+language), and thus I was acquitted.  I tried to explain the
+affair from my own point of view, but they concluded that I
+simply wanted to rehabilitate the memory of my wife.  Her
+relations with the musician, whatever they may have been, are now
+of no importance to me or to her.  The important part is what I
+have told you.  The whole tragedy was due to the fact that this
+man came into our house at a time when an immense abyss had
+already been dug between us, that frightful tension of mutual
+hatred, in which the slightest motive sufficed to precipitate the
+crisis.  Our quarrels in the last days were something terrible,
+and the more astonishing because they were followed by a brutal
+passion extremely strained.  If it had not been he, some other
+would have come.  If the pretext had not been jealousy, I should
+have discovered another.  I insist upon this point,--that all
+husbands who live the married life that I lived must either
+resort to outside debauchery, or separate from their wives, or
+kill themselves, or kill their wives as I did.  If there is any
+one in my case to whom this does not happen, he is a very rare
+exception, for, before ending as I ended, I was several times on
+the point of suicide, and my wife made several attempts to poison
+herself.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+"In order that you may understand me, I must tell you how this
+happened.  We were living along, and all seemed well.  Suddenly
+we began to talk of the children's education.  I do not remember
+what words either of us uttered, but a discussion began,
+reproaches, leaps from one subject to another.  'Yes, I know it. 
+It has been so for a long time.' . . .  'You said that.' . . . 
+'No, I did not say that.' . . . 'Then I lie?' etc.
+
+"And I felt that the frightful crisis was approaching when I
+should desire to kill her or else myself.  I knew that it was
+approaching; I was afraid of it as of fire; I wanted to restrain
+myself.  But rage took possession of my whole being.  My wife
+found herself in the same condition, perhaps worse.  She knew
+that she intentionally distorted each of my words, and each of
+her words was saturated with venom.  All that was dear to me she
+disparaged and profaned. The farther the quarrel went, the more
+furious it became.  I cried, 'Be silent,' or something like that.
+
+She bounded out of the room and ran toward the children.  I tried
+to hold her back to finish my insults.  I grasped her by the arm,
+and hurt her.  She cried: 'Children, your father is beating me.' 
+I cried: 'Don't lie.'  She continued to utter falsehoods for the
+simple purpose of irritating me further.  'Ah, it is not the
+first time,' or something of that sort.  The children rushed
+toward her and tried to quiet her.  I said: 'Don't sham.'  She
+said: 'You look upon everything as a sham.  You would kill a
+person and say he was shamming.  Now I understand you.  That is
+what you want to do.'  'Oh, if you were only dead!' I cried.
+
+"I remember how that terrible phrase frightened me.  Never had I
+thought that I could utter words so brutal, so frightful, and I
+was stupefied at what had just escaped my lips.  I fled into my
+private apartment.  I sat down and began to smoke.  I heard her
+go into the hall and prepare to go out.  I asked her: 'Where are
+you going?  She did not answer.  'Well, may the devil take you!'
+said I to myself, going back into my private room, where I lay
+down again and began smoking afresh.  Thousands of plans of
+vengeance, of ways of getting rid of her, and how to arrange
+this, and act as if nothing had happened,--all this passed
+through my head.  I thought of these things, and I smoked, and
+smoked, and smoked.  I thought of running away, of making my
+escape, of going to America.  I went so far as to dream how
+beautiful it would be, after getting rid of her, to love another
+woman, entirely different from her.  I should be rid of her if
+she should die or if I should get a divorce, and I tried to think
+how that could be managed.  I saw that I was getting confused,
+but, in order not to see that I was not thinking rightly, I kept
+on smoking.
+
+"And the life of the house went on as usual. The children's
+teacher came and asked: 'Where is Madame?  When will she return?'
+
+The servants asked if they should serve the tea.  I entered the
+dining-room.  The children, Lise, the eldest girl, looked at me
+with fright, as if to question me, and she did not come.  The
+whole evening passed, and still she did not come.  Two sentiments
+kept succeeding each other in my soul,--hatred of her, since she
+tortured myself and the children by her absence, but would
+finally return just the same, and fear lest she might return and
+make some attempt upon herself. But where should I look for her? 
+At her sister's?  It seemed so stupid to go to ask where one's
+wife is.  Moreover, may God forbid, I hoped, that she should be
+at her sister's!  If she wishes to torment any one, let her
+torment herself first.  And suppose she were not at her sister's.
+
+Suppose she were to do, or had already done, something.
+
+"Eleven o'clock, midnight, one o'clock. . . . I did not sleep.  I
+did not go to my chamber.  It is stupid to lie stretched out all
+alone, and to wait.  But in my study I did not rest.  I tried to
+busy myself, to write letters, to read.  Impossible!  I was
+alone, tortured, wicked, and I listened.  Toward daylight I went
+to sleep.  I awoke.  She had not returned.  Everything in the
+house went on as usual, and all looked at me in astonishment,
+questioningly.  The children's eyes were full of reproach for me.
+
+And always the same feeling of anxiety about her, and of hatred
+because of this anxiety.
+
+"Toward eleven o'clock in the morning came her sister, her
+ambassadress.  Then began the usual phrases: 'She is in a
+terrible state.  What is the matter?'  'Why, nothing has
+happened.'  I spoke of her asperity of character, and I added
+that I had done nothing, and that I would not take the first
+step.  If she wants a divorce, so much the better!  My
+sister-in-law would not listen to this idea, and went away
+without having gained anything.  I was obstinate, and I said
+boldly and determinedly, in talking to her, that I would not take
+the first step.  Immediately she had gone I went into the other
+room, and saw the children in a frightened and pitiful state, and
+there I found myself already inclined to take this first step. 
+But I was bound by my word.  Again I walked up and down, always
+smoking.  At breakfast I drank brandy and wine, and I reached the
+point which I unconsciously desired, the point where I no longer
+saw the stupidity and baseness of my situation.
+
+"Toward three o'clock she came.  I thought that she was appeased,
+or admitted her defeat. I began to tell her that I was provoked
+by her reproaches.  She answered me, with the same severe and
+terribly downcast face, that she had not come for explanations,
+but to take the children, that we could not live together.  I
+answered that it was not my fault, that she had put me beside
+myself.  She looked at me with a severe and solemn air, and said:
+'Say no more. You will repent it.'  I said that I could not
+tolerate comedies.  Then she cried out something that I did not
+understand, and rushed toward her room.  The key turned in the
+lock, and she shut herself up.  I pushed at the door.  There was
+no response.  Furious, I went away.
+
+"A half hour later Lise came running all in tears.  'What!  Has
+anything happened?  We cannot hear Mamma!'  We went toward my
+wife's room.  I pushed the door with all my might.  The bolt was
+scarcely drawn, and the door opened.  In a skirt, with high
+boots, my wife lay awkwardly on the bed.  On the table an empty
+opium phial.  We restored her to life.  Tears and then
+reconciliation!  Not reconciliation; internally each kept the
+hatred for the other, but it was absolutely necessary for the
+moment to end the scene in some way, and life began again as
+before.  These scenes, and even worse, came now once a week, now
+every month, now every day.  And invariably the same incidents. 
+Once I was absolutely resolved to fly, but through some
+inconceivable weakness I remained.
+
+"Such were the circumstances in which we were living when the MAN
+came.  The man was bad, it is true.  But what!  No worse than we
+were.
+
+  
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+"When we moved to Moscow, this gentleman--his name was
+Troukhatchevsky--came to my house.  It was in the morning.  I
+received him.  In former times we had been very familiar.  He
+tried, by various advances, to re-establish the familiarity, but
+I was determined to keep him at a distance, and soon he gave it
+up.  He displeased me extremely.  At the first glance I saw that
+he was a filthy debauche.  I was jealous of him, even before he
+had seen my wife.  But, strange thing! some occult fatal power
+kept me from repulsing him and sending him away, and, on the
+contrary, induced me to suffer this approach.  What could have
+been simpler than to talk with him a few minutes, and then
+dismiss him coldly without introducing him to my wife? But no, as
+if on purpose, I turned the conversation upon his skill as a
+violinist, and he answered that, contrary to what I had heard, he
+now played the violin more than formerly.  He remembered that I
+used to play.  I answered that I had abandoned music, but that my
+wife played very well.
+
+"Singular thing!  Why, in the important events of our life, in
+those in which a man's fate is decided,--as mine was decided in
+that moment,--why in these events is there neither a past nor a
+future?  My relations with Troukhatchevsky the first day, at the
+first hour, were such as they might still have been after all
+that has happened.  I was conscious that some frightful
+misfortune must result from the presence of this man, and, in
+spite of that, I could not help being amiable to him.  I
+introduced him to my wife.  She was pleased with him.  In the
+beginning, I suppose, because of the pleasure of the violin
+playing, which she adored.  She had even hired for that purpose a
+violinist from the theatre.  But when she cast a glance at me,
+she understood my feelings, and concealed her impression.  Then
+began the mutual trickery and deceit.  I smiled agreeably,
+pretending that all this pleased me extremely.  He, looking at my
+wife, as all debauches look at beautiful women, with an air of
+being interested solely in the subject of conversation,--that is,
+in that which did not interest him at all.
+
+"She tried to seem indifferent.  But my expression, my jealous or
+false smile, which she knew so well, and the voluptuous glances
+of the musician, evidently excited her.  I saw that, after the
+first interview, her eyes were already glittering, glittering
+strangely, and that, thanks to my jealousy, between him and her
+had been immediately established that sort of electric current
+which is provoked by an identity of expression in the smile and
+in the eyes.
+
+"We talked, at the first interview, of music, of Paris, and of
+all sorts of trivialities.  He rose to go.  Pressing his hat
+against his swaying hip, he stood erect, looking now at her and
+now at me, as if waiting to see what she would do.  I remember
+that minute, precisely because it was in my power not to invite
+him.  I need not have invited him, and then nothing would have
+happened.  But I cast a glance first at him, then at her.  'Don't
+flatter yourself that I can be jealous of you,' I thought,
+addressing myself to her mentally, and I invited the other to
+bring his violin that very evening, and to play with my wife. 
+She raised her eyes toward me with astonishment, and her face
+turned purple, as if she were seized with a sudden fear.  She
+began to excuse herself, saying that she did not play well
+enough.  This refusal only excited me the more. I remember the
+strange feeling with which I looked at his neck, his white neck,
+in contrast with his black hair, separated by a parting, when,
+with his skipping gait, like that of a bird, he left my house.  I
+could not help confessing to myself that this man's presence
+caused me suffering. 'It is in my power,' thought I, 'to so
+arrange things that I shall never see him again.  But can it be
+that I, _I_, fear him?  No, I do not fear him. It would be too
+humiliating!'
+
+"And there in the hall, knowing that my wife heard me, I insisted
+that he should come that very evening with his violin.  He
+promised me, and went away.  In the evening he arrived with his
+violin, and they played together.  But for a long time things did
+not go well; we had not the necessary music, and that which we
+had my wife could not play at sight.  I amused myself with their
+difficulties.  I aided them, I made proposals, and they finally
+executed a few pieces,--songs without words, and a little sonata
+by Mozart.  He played in a marvellous manner.  He had what is
+called the energetic and tender tone. As for difficulties, there
+were none for him. Scarcely had he begun to play, when his face
+changed.  He became serious, and much more sympathetic.  He was,
+it is needless to say, much stronger than my wife.  He helped
+her, he advised her simply and naturally, and at the same time
+played his game with courtesy.  My wife seemed interested only in
+the music.  She was very simple and agreeable.  Throughout the
+evening I feigned, not only for the others, but for myself, an
+interest solely in the music. Really, I was continually tortured
+by jealousy.  From the first minute that the musician's eyes met
+those of my wife, I saw that he did not regard her as a
+disagreeable woman, with whom on occasion it would be unpleasant
+to enter into intimate relations.
+
+"If I had been pure, I should not have dreamed of what he might
+think of her.  But I looked at women, and that is why I
+understood him and was in torture.  I was in torture, especially
+because I was sure that toward me she had no other feeling than
+of perpetual irritation, sometimes interrupted by the customary
+sensuality, and that this man,--thanks to his external elegance
+and his novelty, and, above all, thanks to his unquestionably
+remarkable talent, thanks to the attraction exercised under the
+influence of music, thanks to the impression that music produces
+upon nervous natures,--this man would not only please, but would
+inevitably, and without difficulty, subjugate and conquer her,
+and do with her as he liked.
+
+"I could not help seeing this.  I could not help suffering, or
+keep from being jealous.  And I was jealous, and I suffered, and
+in spite of that, and perhaps even because of that, an unknown
+force, in spite of my will, impelled me to be not only polite,
+but more than polite, amiable. I cannot say whether I did it for
+my wife, or to show him that I did not fear HIM, or to deceive
+myself; but from my first relations with him I could not be at my
+ease.  I was obliged, that I might not give way to a desire to
+kill him immediately, to 'caress' him.  I filled his glass at the
+table, I grew enthusiastic over his playing, I talked to him with
+an extremely amiable smile, and I invited him to dinner the
+following Sunday, and to play again.  I told him that I would
+invite some of my acquaintances, lovers of his art, to hear him.
+
+"Two or three days later I was entering my house, in conversation
+with a friend, when in the hall I suddenly felt something as
+heavy as a stone weighing on my heart, and I could not account
+for it.  And it was this, it was this: in passing through the
+hall, I had noticed something which reminded me of HIM.  Not
+until I reached my study did I realize what it was, and I
+returned to the hall to verify my conjecture. Yes, I was not
+mistaken.  It was his overcoat (everything that belonged to him,
+I, without realizing it, had observed with extraordinary
+attention).  I questioned the servant.  That was it. He had come.
+
+I passed near the parlor, through my children's study-room. 
+Lise, my daughter, was sitting before a book, and the old nurse,
+with my youngest child, was beside the table, turning the cover
+of something or other.  In the parlor I heard a slow arpeggio,
+and his voice, deadened, and a denial from her.  She said: 'No,
+no!  There is something else!'  And it seemed to me that some one
+was purposely deadening the words by the aid of the piano.
+
+"My God!  How my heart leaped!  What were my imaginations!  When
+I remember the beast that lived in me at that moment, I am seized
+with fright.  My heart was first compressed, then stopped, and
+then began to beat like a hammer.  The principal feeling, as in
+every bad feeling, was pity for myself.  'Before the children,
+before the old nurse,' thought I, 'she dishonors me.  I will go
+away.  I can endure it no longer.  God knows what I should do if.
+. . .  But I must go in.'
+
+The old nurse raised her eyes to mine, as if she understood, and
+advised me to keep a sharp watch.  'I must go in,' I said to
+myself, and, without knowing what I did, I opened the door. He
+was sitting at the piano and making arpeggios with his long,
+white, curved fingers.  She was standing in the angle of the
+grand piano, before the open score.  She saw or heard me first,
+and raised her eyes to mine.  Was she stunned, was she pretending
+not to be frightened, or was she really not frightened at all? 
+In
+any case, she did not tremble, she did not stir. She blushed, but
+only a little later.
+
+"'How glad I am that you have come!  We have not decided what we
+will play Sunday,' said she, in a tone that she would not have
+had if she had been alone with me.
+
+"This tone, and the way in which she said 'we' in speaking of
+herself and of him, revolted me.  I saluted him silently.  He
+shook hands with me directly, with a smile that seemed to me full
+of mockery.  He explained to me that he had brought some scores,
+in order to prepare for the Sunday concert, and that they were
+not in accord as to the piece to choose,--whether difficult,
+classic things, notably a sonata by Beethoven, or lighter pieces.
+
+And as he spoke, he looked at me.  It was all so natural, so
+simple, that there was absolutely nothing to be said against it. 
+And at the same time I saw, I was sure, that it was false, that
+they were in a conspiracy to deceive me.
+
+"One of the most torturing situations for the jealous (and in our
+social life everybody is jealous) are those social conditions
+which allow a very great and dangerous intimacy between a man and
+a woman under certain pretexts.  One must make himself the
+laughing stock of everybody, if he desires to prevent
+associations in the ball-room, the intimacy of doctors with their
+patients, the familiarity of art occupations, and especially of
+music.  In order that people may occupy themselves together with
+the noblest art, music, a certain intimacy is necessary, in which
+there is nothing blameworthy.  Only a jealous fool of a husband
+can have anything to say against it.  A husband should not have
+such thoughts, and especially should not thrust his nose into
+these affairs, or prevent them.  And yet, everybody knows that
+precisely in these occupations, especially in music, many
+adulteries originate in our society.
+
+"I had evidently embarrassed them, because for some time I was
+unable to say anything.  I was like a bottle suddenly turned
+upside down, from which the water does not run because it is too
+full.  I wanted to insult the man, and to drive him away, but I
+could do nothing of the kind.  On the contrary, I felt that I was
+disturbing them, and that it was my fault.  I made a presence of
+approving everything, this time also, thanks to that strange
+feeling that forced me to treat him the more amiably in
+proportion as his presence was more painful to me.  I said that I
+trusted to his taste, and I advised my wife to do the same.  He
+remained just as long as it was necessary in order to efface the
+unpleasant impression of my abrupt entrance with a frightened
+face.  He went away with an air of satisfaction at the
+conclusions arrived at.  As for me, I was perfectly sure that, in
+comparison with that which preoccupied them, the question of
+music was indifferent to them.  I accompanied him with especial
+courtesy to the hall (how can one help accompanying a man who has
+come to disturb your tranquillity and ruin the happiness of the
+entire family?), and I shook his white, soft hand with fervent
+amiability.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+"All that day I did not speak to my wife.  I could not.  Her
+proximity excited such hatred that I feared myself.  At the table
+she asked me, in presence of the children, when I was to start
+upon a journey.  I was to go the following week to an assembly of
+the Zemstvo, in a neighboring locality.  I named the date.  She
+asked me if I would need anything for the journey.  I did not
+answer.  I sat silent at the table, and silently I retired to my
+study.  In those last days she never entered my study, especially
+at that hour.  Suddenly I heard her steps, her walk, and then a
+terribly base idea entered my head that, like the wife of Uri,
+she wished to conceal a fault already committed, and that it was
+for this reason that she came to see me at this unseasonable
+hour.  'Is it possible,' thought I, 'that she is coming to see
+me?'  On hearing her step as it approached: 'If it is to see me
+that she is coming, then I am right.'
+
+"An inexpressible hatred invaded my soul. The steps drew nearer,
+and nearer, and nearer yet.  Would she pass by and go on to the
+other room?  No, the hinges creaked, and at the door her tall,
+graceful, languid figure appeared.  In her face, in her eyes, a
+timidity, an insinuating expression, which she tried to hide, but
+which I saw, and of which I understood the meaning.  I came near
+suffocating, such were my efforts to hold my breath, and,
+continuing to look at her, I took my cigarette, and lighted it.
+
+"'What does this mean?  One comes to talk with you, and you go to
+smoking.'
+
+"And she sat down beside me on the sofa, resting against my
+shoulder.  I recoiled, that I might not touch her.
+
+"'I see that you are displeased with what I wish to play on
+Sunday,' said she.
+
+"'I am not at all displeased,' said I.
+
+"'Can I not see?'
+
+"'Well, I congratulate you on your clairvoyance.  Only to you
+every baseness is agreeable, and I abhor it.'
+
+"'If you are going to swear like a trooper, I am going away.'
+
+"'Then go away.  Only know that, if the honor of the family is
+nothing to you, to me it is dear.  As for you, the devil take
+you!'
+
+"'What!  What is the matter?'
+
+"'Go away, in the name of God.'
+
+"But she did not go away.  Was she pretending not to understand,
+or did she really not understand what I meant?  But she was
+offended and became angry.
+
+"'You have become absolutely impossible,' she began, or some such
+phrase as that regarding my character, trying, as usual, to give
+me as much pain as possible.  'After what you have done to my
+sister (she referred to an incident with her sister, in which,
+beside myself, I had uttered brutalities; she knew that that
+tortured me, and tried to touch me in that tender spot) nothing
+will astonish me.'
+
+"'Yes, offended, humiliated, and dishonored, and after that to
+hold me still responsible,' thought I, and suddenly a rage, such
+a hatred invaded me as I do not remember to have ever felt
+before.  For the first time I desired to express this hatred
+physically.  I leaped upon her, but at the same moment I
+understood my condition, and I asked myself whether it would be
+well for me to abandon myself to my fury.  And I answered myself
+that it would be well, that it would frighten her, and, instead
+of resisting, I lashed and spurred myself on, and was glad to
+feel my anger boiling more and more fiercely.
+
+"'Go away, or I will kill you!' I cried, purposely, with a
+frightful voice, and I grasped her by the arm.  She did not go
+away.  Then I twisted her arm, and pushed her away violently.
+
+"'What is the matter with you?  Come to your senses!' she
+shrieked.
+
+"'Go away,' roared I, louder than ever, rolling my eyes wildly. 
+'It takes you to put me in such a fury.  I do not answer for
+myself!  Go away!'
+
+"In abandoning myself to my anger, I became steeped in it, and I
+wanted to commit some violent act to show the force of my fury. 
+I felt a terrible desire to beat her, to kill her, but I realized
+that that could not be, and I restrained myself.  I drew back
+from her, rushed to the table, grasped the paper-weight, and
+threw it on the floor by her side.  I took care to aim a little
+to one side, and, before she disappeared (I did it so that she
+could see it), I grasped a candlestick, which I also hurled, and
+then took down the barometer, continuing to shout:
+
+"'Go away!  I do not answer for myself!'
+
+"She disappeared, and I immediately ceased my demonstrations.  An
+hour later the old servant came to me and said that my wife was
+in a fit of hysterics.  I went to see her.  She sobbed and
+laughed, incapable of expressing anything, her whole body in a
+tremble.  She was not shamming, she was really sick.  We sent for
+the doctor, and all night long I cared for her.  Toward daylight
+she grew calmer, and we became reconciled under the influence of
+that feeling which we called 'love.'  The next morning, when,
+after the reconciliation, I confessed to her that I was jealous
+of Troukhatchevsky, she was not at all embarrassed, and began to
+laugh in the most natural way, so strange did the possibility of
+being led astray by such a man appear to her.
+
+ "'With such a man can an honest woman entertain any feeling
+beyond the pleasure of enjoying music with him?  But if you like,
+I am ready to never see him again, even on Sunday, although
+everybody has been invited.  Write him that I am indisposed, and
+that will end the matter.  Only one thing annoys me,--that any
+one could have thought him dangerous.  I am too proud not to
+detest such thoughts.'
+
+"And she did not lie.  She believed what she said.  She hoped by
+her words to provoke in herself a contempt for him, and thereby
+to defend herself.  But she did not succeed.  Everything was
+directed against her, especially that abominable music.  So ended
+the quarrel, and on Sunday our guests came, and Troukhatchevsky
+and my wife again played together.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER  XXIII.
+
+"I think that it is superfluous to say that I was very vain.  If
+one has no vanity in this life of ours, there is no sufficient
+reason for living. So for that Sunday I had busied myself in
+tastefully arranging things for the dinner and the musical
+soiree.  I had purchased myself numerous things for the dinner,
+and had chosen the guests.  Toward six o'clock they arrived, and
+after them Troukhatchevsky, in his dress-coat, with diamond
+shirt-studs, in bad taste.  He bore himself with ease.  To all
+questions he responded promptly, with a smile of contentment and
+understanding, and that peculiar expression which was intended to
+mean: 'All that you may do and say will be exactly what I
+expected.' Everything about him that was not correct I now
+noticed with especial pleasure, for it all tended to tranquillize
+me, and prove to me that to my wife he stood in such a degree of
+inferiority that, as she had told me, she could not stoop to his
+level.  Less because of my wife's assurances than because of the
+atrocious sufferings which I felt in jealousy, I no longer
+allowed myself to be jealous.
+
+"In spite of that, I was not at ease with the musician or with
+her during dinner-time and the time that elapsed before the
+beginning of the music.  Involuntarily I followed each of their
+gestures and looks.  The dinner, like all dinners, was tiresome
+and conventional.  Not long afterward the music began.  He went
+to get his violin; my wife advanced to the piano, and rummaged
+among the scores.  Oh, how well I remember all the details of
+that evening!  I remember how he brought the violin, how he
+opened the box, took off the serge embroidered by a lady's hand,
+and began to tune the instrument.  I can still see my wife sit
+down, with a false air of indifference, under which it was plain
+that she hid a great timidity, a timidity that was especially due
+to her comparative lack of musical knowledge.  She sat down with
+that false air in front of the piano, and then began the usual
+preliminaries,--the pizzicati of the violin and the arrangement
+of the scores.  I remember then how they looked at each other,
+and cast a glance at their auditors who were taking their seats. 
+They said a few words to each other, and the music began.  They
+played Beethoven's 'Kreutzer Sonata.'  Do you know the first
+presto? Do you know it?  Ah!" . . .
+
+Posdnicheff heaved a sigh, and was silent for a long time.
+
+"A terrible thing is that sonata, especially the presto!  And a
+terrible thing is music in general.  What is it ?  Why does it do
+what it does? They say that music stirs the soul.  Stupidity! A
+lie!  It acts, it acts frightfully (I speak for myself), but not
+in an ennobling way.  It acts neither in an ennobling nor a
+debasing way, but in an irritating way.  How shall I say it? 
+Music makes me forget my real situation.  It transports me into a
+state which is not my own.  Under the influence of music I really
+seem to feel what I do not feel, to understand what I do not
+understand, to have powers which I cannot have. Music seems to me
+to act like yawning or laughter; I have no desire to sleep, but I
+yawn when I see others yawn; with no reason to laugh, I laugh
+when I hear others laugh.  And music transports me immediately
+into the condition of soul in which he who wrote the music found
+himself at that time.  I become confounded with his soul, and
+with him I pass from one condition to another.  But why that?  I
+know nothing about it?  But he who wrote Beethoven's 'Kreutzer
+Sonata' knew well why he found himself in a certain condition. 
+That condition led him to certain actions, and for that reason to
+him had a meaning, but to me none, none whatever.  And that is
+why music provokes an excitement which it does not bring to a
+conclusion.  For instance, a military march is played; the
+soldier passes to the sound of this march, and the music is
+finished.  A dance is played; I have finished dancing, and the
+music is finished.  A mass is sung; I receive the sacrament, and
+again the music is finished.  But any other music provokes an
+excitement, and this excitement is not accompanied by the thing
+that needs properly to be done, and that is why music is so
+dangerous, and sometimes acts so frightfully.
+
+"In China music is under the control of the State, and that is
+the way it ought to be.  Is it admissible that the first comer
+should hypnotize one or more persons, and then do with them as he
+likes?  And especially that the hypnotizer should be the first
+immoral individual who happens to come along?  It is a frightful
+power in the hands of any one, no matter whom.  For instance,
+should they be allowed to play this 'Kreutzer Sonata,' the first
+presto,--and there are many like it,--in parlors, among ladies
+wearing low necked dresses, or in concerts, then finish the
+piece, receive the applause, and then begin another piece?  These
+things should be played under certain circumstances, only in
+cases where it is necessary to incite certain actions
+corresponding to the music.  But to incite an energy of feeling
+which corresponds to neither the time nor the place, and is
+expended in nothing, cannot fail to act dangerously.  On me in
+particular this piece acted in a frightful manner. One would have
+said that new sentiments, new virtualities, of which I was
+formerly ignorant, had developed in me.  'Ah, yes, that's it! 
+Not at all as I lived and thought before!  This is the right way
+to live!'
+
+"Thus I spoke to my soul as I listened to that music.  What was
+this new thing that I thus learned?  That I did not realize, but
+the consciousness of this indefinite state filled me with joy. 
+In that state there was no room for jealousy.  The same faces,
+and among them HE and my wife, I saw in a different light.  This
+music transported me into an unknown world, where there was no
+room for jealousy.  Jealousy and the feelings that provoke it
+seemed to me trivialities, nor worth thinking of.
+
+"After the presto followed the andante, not very new, with
+commonplace variations, and the feeble finale.  Then they played
+more, at the request of the guests,--first an elegy by Ernst, and
+then various other pieces.  They were all very well, but did not
+produce upon me a tenth part of the impression that the opening
+piece did.  I felt light and gay throughout the evening.  As for
+my wife, never had I seen her as she was that night.  Those
+brilliant eyes, that severity and majestic expression while she
+was playing, and then that utter languor, that weak, pitiable,
+and happy smile after she had finished,--I saw them all and
+attached no importance to them, believing that she felt as I did,
+that to her, as to me, new sentiments had been revealed, as
+through a fog.  During almost the whole evening I was not
+jealous.
+
+"Two days later I was to start for the assembly of the Zemstvo,
+and for that reason, on taking leave of me and carrying all his
+scores with him, Troukhatchevsky asked me when I should return. 
+I inferred from that that he believed it impossible to come to my
+house during my absence, and that was agreeable to me.  Now I was
+not to return before his departure from the city.  So we bade
+each other a definite farewell. For the first time I shook his
+hand with pleasure, and thanked him for the satisfaction that he
+had given me.  He likewise took leave of my wife, and their
+parting seemed to me very natural and proper.  All went
+marvellously.  My wife and I retired, well satisfied with the
+evening.  We talked of our impressions in a general way, and we
+were nearer together and more friendly than we had been for a
+long time.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+"Two days later I started for the assembly, having bid farewell
+to my wife in an excellent and tranquil state of mind.  In the
+district there was always much to be done.  It was a world and a
+life apart.  During two days I spent ten hours at the sessions. 
+The evening of the second day, on returning to my district
+lodgings, I found a letter from my wife, telling me of the
+children, of their uncle, of the servants, and, among other
+things, as if it were perfectly natural, that Troukhatchevsky had
+been at the house, and had brought her the promised scores.  He
+had also proposed that they play again, but she had refused.
+
+"For my part, I did not remember at all that he had promised any
+score.  It had seemed to me on Sunday evening that he took a
+definite leave, and for this reason the news gave me a
+disagreeable surprise.  I read the letter again. There was
+something tender and timid about it. It produced an extremely
+painful impression upon me.  My heart swelled, and the mad beast
+of jealousy began to roar in his lair, and seemed to want to leap
+upon his prey.  But I was afraid of this beast, and I imposed
+silence upon it.
+
+"What an abominable sentiment is jealousy! 'What could be more
+natural than what she has written?' said I to myself.  I went to
+bed, thinking myself tranquil again.  I thought of the business
+that remained to be done, and I went to sleep without thinking of
+her.
+
+"During these assemblies of the Zemstvo I always slept badly in
+my strange quarters.  That night I went to sleep directly, but,
+as sometimes happens, a sort of sudden shock awoke me.  I thought
+immediately of her, of my physical love for her, of
+Troukhatchevsky, and that between them everything had happened. 
+And a feeling of rage compressed my heart, and I tried to quiet
+myself.
+
+"'How stupid!' said I to myself; 'there is no reason, none at
+all.  And why humiliate ourselves, herself and myself, and
+especially myself, by supposing such horrors?  This mercenary
+violinist, known as a bad man,--shall I think of him in
+connection with a respectable woman, the mother of a family, MY
+wife?  How silly!'  But on the other hand, I said to myself: 'Why
+should it not happen?'
+
+"Why?  Was it not the same simple and intelligible feeling in the
+name of which I married, in the name of which I was living with
+her, the only thing I wanted of her, and that which,
+consequently, others desired, this musician among the rest?  He
+was not married, was in good health (I remember how his teeth
+ground the gristle of the cutlets, and how eagerly he emptied the
+glass of wine with his red lips), was careful of his person, well
+fed,  and not only without principles, but evidently with the
+principle that one should take advantage of the pleasure that
+offers itself.  There was a bond between them, music,--the most
+refined form of sensual voluptuousness.  What was there to
+restrain them?  Nothing.  Everything, on the contrary, attracted
+them.  And she, she had been and had remained a mystery. I did
+not know her.  I knew her only as an animal, and an animal
+nothing can or should restrain.  And now I remember their faces
+on Sunday evening, when, after the 'Kreutzer Sonata,' they played
+a passionate piece, written I know not by whom, but a piece
+passionate to the point of obscenity.
+
+"'How could I have gone away?' said I to myself, as I recalled
+their faces.  'Was it not clear that between them everything was
+done that evening?  Was it not clear that between them not only
+there were no more obstacles, but that both--especially she--felt
+a certain shame after what had happened at the piano?  How
+weakly, pitiably, happily she smiled, as she wiped the
+perspiration from her reddened face!  They already avoided each
+other's eyes, and only at the supper, when she poured some water
+for him, did they look at each other and smile imperceptibly.'
+
+"Now I remember with fright that look and that scarcely
+perceptible smile.  'Yes, everything has happened,' a voice said
+to me, and directly another said the opposite.  'Are you mad?  It
+is impossible!' said the second voice.
+
+"It was too painful to me to remain thus stretched in the
+darkness.  I struck a match, and the little yellow-papered room
+frightened me. I lighted a cigarette, and, as always happens,
+when one turns in a circle of inextricable contradiction, I began
+to smoke.  I smoked cigarette after cigarette to dull my senses,
+that I might not see my contradictions.  All night I did not
+sleep, and at five o'clock, when it was not yet light, I decided
+that I could stand this strain no longer, and that I would leave
+directly.  There was a train at eight o'clock.  I awakened the
+keeper who was acting as my servant, and sent him to look for
+horses.  To the assembly of Zemstvo I sent a message that I was
+called back to Moscow by pressing business, and that I begged
+them to substitute for me a member of the Committee.  At eight
+o'clock I got into a tarantass and started off.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+"I had to go twenty-five versts by carriage and eight hours by
+train.  By carriage it was a very pleasant journey.  The coolness
+of autumn was accompanied by a brilliant sun.  You know the
+weather when the wheels imprint themselves upon the dirty road. 
+The road was level, and the light strong, and the air 
+strengthening.  The tarantass was comfortable.  As I looked at
+the horses, the fields, and the people whom we passed, I forgot
+where I was going.  Sometimes it seemed to me that I was
+travelling without an object,--simply promenading,--and that I
+should go on thus to the end of the world.  And I was happy when
+I so forgot myself.  But when I remembered where I was going, I
+said to myself: 'I shall see later.  Don't think about it.'
+
+"When half way, an incident happened to distract me still
+further.  The tarantass, though new, broke down, and had to be
+repaired.  The delays in looking for a telegue, the repairs, the
+payment, the tea in the inn, the conversation with the dvornik,
+all served to amuse me.  Toward nightfall all was ready, and I
+started off again.  By night the journey was still pleasanter
+than by day.  The moon in its first quarter, a slight frost, the
+road still in good condition, the horses, the sprightly coachman,
+all served to put me in good spirits.  I scarcely thought of what
+awaited me, and was gay perhaps because of the very thing that
+awaited me, and because I was about to say farewell to the joys
+of life.
+
+"But this tranquil state, the power of conquering my
+preoccupation, all ended with the carriage drive.  Scarcely had
+I entered the cars, when the other thing began.  Those eight
+hours on the rail were so terrible to me that I shall never
+forget them in my life.  Was it because on entering the car I had
+a vivid imagination of having already arrived, or because the
+railway acts upon people in such an exciting fashion?  At any
+rate, after boarding the train I could no longer control my
+imagination, which incessantly, with extraordinary vivacity, drew
+pictures before my eyes, each more cynical than its predecessor,
+which kindled my jealousy.  And always the same things about what
+was happening at home during my absence.  I burned with
+indignation, with rage, and with a peculiar feeling which steeped
+me in humiliation, as I contemplated these pictures.  And I could
+not tear myself out of this condition.  I could not help looking
+at them, I could not efface them, I could not keep from evoking
+them.
+
+"The more I looked at these imaginary pictures, the more I
+believed in their reality, forgetting that they had no serious
+foundation.  The vivacity of these images seemed to prove to me
+that my imaginations were a reality.  One would have said that a
+demon, against my will, was inventing and breathing into me the
+most terrible fictions.  A conversation which dated a long time
+back, with the brother of Troukhatchevsky, I remembered at that
+moment, in a sort of ecstasy, and it tore my heart as I connected
+it with the musician and my wife.  Yes, it was very long ago. 
+The brother of Troukhatchevsky, answering my questions as to
+whether he frequented disreputable houses, said that a
+respectable man does not go where he may contract a disease, in a
+low and unclean spot, when one can find an honest woman.  And
+here he, his brother, the musician, had found the honest woman. 
+'It is true that she is no longer in her early youth.  She has
+lost a tooth on one side, and her face is slightly bloated,'
+thought I for Troukhatchevsky.  'But what is to be done?  One
+must profit by what one has.'
+
+"'Yes, he is bound to take her for his mistress,' said I to
+myself again; 'and besides, she is not dangerous.'
+
+"'No, it is not possible' I rejoined in fright. 'Nothing, nothing
+of the kind has happened, and there is no reason to suppose there
+has.  Did she not tell me that the very idea that I could be
+jealous of her because of him was humiliating to her?'  'Yes, but
+she lied,' I cried, and all began over again.
+
+"There were only two travellers in my compartment: an old woman
+with her husband, neither of them very talkative; and even they
+got out at one of the stations, leaving me all alone.  I was like
+a beast in a cage.  Now I jumped up and approached the window,
+now I began to walk back and forth, staggering as if I hoped to
+make the train go faster by my efforts, and the car with its
+seats and its windows trembled continually, as ours does
+now."
+
+And Posdnicheff rose abruptly, took a few steps, and sat down
+again.
+
+"Oh, I am afraid, I am afraid of railway carriages.  Fear seizes
+me.  I sat down again, and I said to myself: 'I must think of
+something else.  For instance, of the inn keeper at whose house I
+took tea.'  And then, in my imagination arose the dvornik, with
+his long beard, and his grandson, a little fellow of the same age
+as my little Basile.  My little Basile!  My little Basile! He
+will see the musician kiss his mother!  What thoughts will pass
+through his poor soul!  But what does that matter to her!  She
+loves.
+
+"And again it all began, the circle of the same thoughts.  I
+suffered so much that at last I did not know what to do with
+myself, and an idea passed through my head that pleased me much,
+--to get out upon the rails, throw myself under the cars, and
+thus finish everything.  One thing prevented me from doing so. 
+It was pity!  It was pity for myself, evoking at the same time a
+hatred for her, for him, but not so much for him.  Toward him I
+felt a strange sentiment of my humiliation and his victory, but
+toward her a terrible hatred.
+
+"'But I cannot kill myself and leave her free.  She must suffer,
+she must understand at least that I have suffered,' said I to
+myself.
+
+"At a station I saw people drinking at the lunch counter, and
+directly I went to swallow a glass of vodki.  Beside me stood a
+Jew, drinking also.  He began to talk to me, and I, in order not
+to be left alone in my compartment, went with him into his
+third-class, dirty, full of smoke, and covered with peelings and
+sunflower seeds.  There I sat down beside the Jew, and, as it
+seemed, he told many anecdotes.
+
+"First I listened to him, but I did not understand what he said. 
+He noticed it, and exacted my attention to his person.  Then I
+rose and entered my own compartment.
+
+"'I must consider,' said I to myself, 'whether what I think is
+true, whether there is any reason to torment myself.'  I sat
+down, wishing to reflect quietly; but directly, instead of the
+peaceful reflections, the same thing began again.  Instead of the
+reasoning, the pictures.
+
+"'How many times have I tormented myself in this way,' I thought
+(I recalled previous and similar fits of jealousy), 'and then
+seen it end in nothing at all?  It is the same now.  Perhaps,
+yes, surely, I shall find her quietly sleeping.  She will awaken,
+she will be glad, and in her words and looks I shall see that
+nothing has happened, that all this is vain.  Ah, if it would
+only so turn out!'  'But no, that has happened too often! Now the
+end has come,' a voice said to me.
+
+"And again it all began.  Ah, what torture! It is not to a
+hospital filled with syphilitic patients that I would take a
+young man to deprive him of the desire for women, but into my
+soul, to show him the demon which tore it.  The frightful part
+was that I recognized in myself an indisputable right to the body
+of my wife, as if her body were entirely mine.  And at the same
+time I felt that I could not possess this body, that it was not
+mine, that she could do with it as she liked, and that she liked
+to do with it as I did not like.  And I was powerless against him
+and against her.  He, like the Vanka of the song, would sing,
+before mounting the gallows, how he would kiss her sweet lips,
+etc., and he would even have the best of it before death.  With
+her it was still worse.  If she HAD NOT DONE IT, she had the
+desire, she wished to do it, and I knew that she did.  That was
+worse yet.  It would be better if she had already done it, to
+relieve me of my uncertainty.
+
+"In short, I could not say what I desired.  I desired that she
+might not want what she MUST want.  It was complete madness.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+"At the station before the last, when the conductor came to take
+the tickets, I took my baggage and went out on the car platform,
+and the consciousness that the climax was near at hand only added
+to my agitation.  I was cold, my jaw trembled so that my teeth
+chattered.  Mechanically I left the station with the crowd, I
+took a tchik, and I started.  I looked at the few people passing
+in the streets and at the dvorniks.  I read the signs, without
+thinking of anything. After going half a verst my feet began to
+feel cold, and I remembered that in the car I had taken off my
+woollen socks, and had put them in my travelling bag.  Where had
+I put the bag?  Was it with me?  Yes, and the basket?
+
+"I bethought myself that I had totally forgotten my baggage.  I
+took out my check, and then decided it was not worth while to
+return.  I continued on my way.  In spite of all my efforts to
+remember, I cannot at this moment make out why I was in such a
+hurry.  I know only that I was conscious that a serious and
+menacing event was approaching in my life.  It was a case of real
+auto-suggestion.  Was it so serious because I thought it so?  Or
+had I a presentiment?  I do not know.  Perhaps, too, after what
+has happened, all previous events have taken on a lugubrious tint
+in my memory.
+
+"I arrived at the steps.  It was an hour past midnight.  A few
+isvotchiks were before the door, awaiting customers, attracted by
+the lighted windows (the lighted windows were those of our parlor
+and reception room).  Without trying to account for this late
+illumination, I went up the steps, always with the same
+expectation of something terrible, and I rang.  The servant, a
+good, industrious, and very stupid being, named Gregor, opened
+the door.  The first thing that leaped to my eyes in the hall, on
+the hat-stand, among other garments, was an overcoat.  I ought to
+have been astonished, but I was not astonished.  I expected it. 
+'That's it!' I said to myself.
+
+"When I had asked Gregor who was there, and he had named
+Troukhatchevsky, I inquired whether there were other visitors. 
+He answered: 'Nobody.'  I remember the air with which he said
+that, with a tone that was intended to give me pleasure, and
+dissipate my doubts. 'That's it! that's it!' I had the air of
+saying to myself.  'And the children?'
+
+"'Thank God, they are very well.  They went to sleep long ago.'
+
+"I scarcely breathed, and I could not keep my jaw from trembling.
+
+Then it was not as I thought.  I had often before returned home
+with the thought that a misfortune had awaited me, but had been
+mistaken, and everything was going on as usual.  But now things
+were not going on as usual.  All that I had imagined, all that I
+believed to be chimeras, all really existed. Here was the truth.
+
+"I was on the point of sobbing, but straightway the demon
+whispered in my ear: 'Weep and be sentimental, and they will
+separate quietly, and there will be no proofs, and all your life
+you will doubt and suffer.'  And pity for myself vanished, and
+there remained only the bestial need of some adroit, cunning, and
+energetic action.  I became a beast, an intelligent beast.
+
+"'No, no,' said I to Gregor, who was about to announce my
+arrival.  'Do this, take a carriage, and go at once for my
+baggage.  Here is the check.  Start.'
+
+"He went along the hall to get his overcoat. Fearing lest he
+might frighten them, I accompanied him to his little room, and
+waited for him to put on his things.  In the dining-room could be
+heard the sound of conversation and the rattling of knives and
+plates.  They were eating.  They had not heard the ring.  'Now if
+they only do not go out,' I thought.
+
+"Gregor put on his fur-collared coat and went out.  I closed the
+door after him.  I felt anxious when I was alone, thinking that
+directly I should have to act.  How?  I did not yet know. I knew
+only that all was ended, that there could be no doubt of his
+innocence, and that in an instant my relations with her were
+going to be terminated.  Before, I had still doubts.  I said to
+myself: 'Perhaps this is not true.  Perhaps I am mistaken.'  Now
+all doubt had disappeared.  All was decided irrevocably. 
+Secretly, all alone with him, at night!  It is a violation of all
+duties!  Or, worse yet, she may make a show of that audacity, of
+that insolence in crime, which, by its excess, tends to prove
+innocence.  All is clear.  No doubt.  I feared but one
+thing,--that they might run in different directions, that they
+might invent some new lie, and thus deprive me of material proof,
+and of the sorrowful joy of punishing, yes, of executing them.
+
+"And to surprise them more quickly, I started on tiptoe for the
+dining-room, not through the parlor, but through the hall and the
+children's rooms.  In the first room slept the little boy.  In
+the second, the old nurse moved in her bed, and seemed on the
+point of waking, and I wondered what she would think when she
+knew all.  And pity for myself gave me such a pang that I could
+not keep the tears back.  Not to wake the children, I ran lightly
+through the hall into my  study.  I dropped upon the sofa, and
+sobbed. 'I, an honest man, I, the son of my parents, who all my
+life long have dreamed of family happiness, I who have never
+betrayed! . . . And here my five children, and she embracing a
+musician because he has red lips!  No, she is not a woman!  She
+is a bitch, a dirty bitch!  Beside the chamber of the children,
+whom she had pretended to love all her life!  And then to think
+of what she wrote me!  And how do I know?  Perhaps it has always
+been thus.  Perhaps all these children, supposed to be mine, are
+the children of my servants.  And if I had arrived to-morrow, she
+would have come to meet me with her coiffure, with her corsage,
+her indolent and graceful movements (and I see her attractive and
+ignoble features), and this jealous animal would have remained
+forever in my heart, tearing it.  What will the old nurse say? 
+And Gregor?  And the poor little Lise?  She already understands
+things.  And this impudence, this falsehood, this bestial
+sensuality, that I know so well,' I said to myself.
+
+"I tried to rise.  I could not.  My heart was beating so
+violently that I could not hold myself upon my legs.  'Yes, I
+shall die of a rush of blood.  She will kill me.  That is what
+she wants.  What is it to her to kill?  But that would be too
+agreeable to him, and I will not allow him to have this pleasure.
+
+Yes, here I am, and there they are.  They are laughing, they. . .
+.  Yes, in spite of the fact that she is no longer in her early
+youth, he has not disdained her.  At any rate, she is by no means
+ugly, and above all, not dangerous to his dear health, to him. 
+Why did I not stifle her then?' said I to myself, as I remembered
+that other scene of the previous week, when I drove her from my
+study, and broke the furniture.
+
+"And I recalled the state in which I was then.  Not only did I
+recall it, but I again entered into the same bestial state.  And
+suddenly there came to me a desire to act, and all reasoning,
+except such as was necessary to action, vanished from my brain,
+and I was in the condition of a beast, and of a man under the
+influence of physical excitement pending a danger, who acts
+imperturbably, without haste, and yet without losing a minute,
+pursuing a definite object.
+
+"The first thing that I did was to take off my boots, and now,
+having only stockings on, I advanced toward the wall, over the
+sofa, where firearms and daggers were hanging, and I took down a
+curved Damascus blade, which I had never used, and which was very
+sharp.  I took it from its sheath.  I remember that the sheath
+fell upon the sofa, and that I said to myself: 'I must look for
+it later; it must not be lost.'
+
+"Then I took off my overcoat, which I had kept on all the time,
+and with wolf-like tread started for THE ROOM.  I do not remember
+how I proceeded, whether I ran or went slowly, through what
+chambers I passed, how I approached the dining-room, how I opened
+the door, how I entered.  I remember nothing about it.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+"I Remember only the expression of their faces when I opened the
+door.  I remember that, because it awakened in me a feeling of
+sorrowful joy.  It was an expression of terror, such as I
+desired.  Never shall I forget that desperate and sudden fright
+that appeared on their faces when they saw me.  He, I believe,
+was at the table, and, when he saw or heard me, he started,
+jumped to his feet, and retreated to the sideboard.  Fear was the
+only sentiment that could be read with certainty in his face.  In
+hers, too, fear was to be read, but accompanied by other
+impressions.  And yet, if her face had expressed only fear,
+perhaps that which happened would not have happened.  But in the
+expression of her face there was at the first moment--at least, I
+thought I saw it--a feeling of ennui, of discontent, at this
+disturbance of her love and happiness.  One would have said that
+her sole desire was not to be disturbed IN THE MOMENT OF HER
+HAPPINESS.  But these expressions appeared upon their faces only
+for a moment.  Terror almost immediately gave place to
+interrogation.  Would they lie or not?  If yes, they must begin. 
+If not, something else was going to happen.  But what?
+
+"He gave her a questioning glance.  On her face the expression of
+anguish and ennui changed, it seemed to me, when she looked at
+him, into an expression of anxiety for HIM.  For a moment I stood
+in the doorway, holding the dagger hidden behind my back. 
+Suddenly he smiled, and in a voice that was indifferent almost to
+the point of ridicule, he said:
+
+"'We were having some music.'
+
+"'I did not expect--,' she began at the same time, chiming in
+with the tone of the other.
+
+"But neither he nor she finished their remarks.  The same rage
+that I had felt the previous week took possession of me.  I felt
+the need of giving free course to my violence and 'the joy of
+wrath.'
+
+"No, they did not finish.  That other thing was going to begin,
+of which he was afraid, and was going to annihilate what they
+wanted to say.  I threw myself upon her, still hiding the dagger,
+that he might not prevent me from striking where I desired, in
+her bosom, under the breast.  At that moment he saw . . . and,
+what I did not expect on his part, he quickly seized my hand, and
+cried:
+
+"'Come to your senses!  What are you doing?  Help!  Help!'
+
+"I tore my hands from his grasp, and leaped upon him.  I must
+have been very terrible, for he turned as white as a sheet, to
+his lips.  His eyes scintillated singularly, and--again what I
+did not expect of him--he scrambled under the piano, toward the
+other room.  I tried to follow him, but a very heavy weight fell
+upon my left arm.  It was she.
+
+"I made an effort to clear myself.  She clung more heavily than
+ever, refusing to let go.  This unexpected obstacle, this burden,
+and this repugnant touch only irritated me the more.  I perceived
+that I was completely mad, that I must be frightful, and I was
+glad of it.  With a sudden impulse, and with all my strength, I
+dealt her, with my left elbow, a blow squarely in the face.
+
+"She uttered a cry and let go my arm.  I wanted to follow the
+other, but I felt that it would be ridiculous to pursue in my
+stockings the lover of my wife, and I did not wish to be
+grotesque, I wished to be terrible.  In spite of my extreme rage,
+I was all the time conscious of the impression that I was making
+upon others, and even this impression partially guided me.
+
+"I turned toward her.  She had fallen on the long easy chair,
+and, covering her face at the spot where I had struck her, she
+looked at me. Her features exhibited fear and hatred toward me,
+her enemy, such as the rat exhibits when one lifts the rat-trap. 
+At least, I saw nothing in her but that fear and hatred, the fear
+and hatred which love for another had provoked.  Perhaps I still
+should have restrained myself, and should not have gone to the
+last extremity, if she had maintained silence.  But suddenly she
+began to speak; she grasped my hand that held the dagger.
+
+"'Come to your senses!  What are you doing?  What is the matter
+with you?  Nothing has happened, nothing, nothing!  I swear it to
+you!'
+
+"I might have delayed longer, but these last words, from which I
+inferred the contrary of what they affirmed,--that is, that
+EVERYTHING had happened,--these words called for a reply. And the
+reply must correspond to the condition into which I had lashed
+myself, and which was increasing and must continue to increase. 
+Rage has its laws.
+
+"'Do not lie, wretch.  Do not lie!' I roared.
+
+"With my left hand I seized her hands.  She disengaged herself. 
+Then, without dropping my dagger, I seized her by the throat,
+forced her to the floor, and began to strangle her.  With her two
+hands she clutched mine, tearing them from her throat, stifling. 
+Then I struck her a blow with the dagger, in the left side,
+between the lower ribs.
+
+"When people say that they do not remember what they do in a fit
+of fury, they talk nonsense. It is false.  I remember everything.
+
+I did not lose my consciousness for a single moment.  The more I
+lashed myself to fury, the clearer my mind became, and I could
+not help seeing what I did.  I cannot say that I knew in advance
+what I would do, but at the moment when I acted, and it seems to
+me even a little before, I knew what I was doing, as if to make
+it possible to repent, and to be able to say later that I could
+have stopped.
+
+"I knew that I struck the blow between the ribs, and that the
+dagger entered.
+
+"At the second when I did it, I knew that I was performing a
+horrible act, such as I had never performed,--an act that would
+have frightful consequences.  My thought was as quick as
+lightning, and the deed followed immediately.  The act, to my
+inner sense, had an extraordinary clearness.  I perceived the
+resistance of the corset and then something else, and then the
+sinking of the knife into a soft substance.  She clutched at the
+dagger with her hands, and cut herself with it, but could not
+restrain the blow.
+
+"Long afterward, in prison when the moral revolution had been
+effected within me, I thought of that minute, I remembered it as
+far as I could, and I co-ordinated all the sudden changes.  I
+remembered the terrible consciousness which I felt,--that I was
+killing a wife, MY wife.
+
+"I well remember the horror of that consciousness and I know
+vaguely that, having plunged in the dagger, I drew it out again
+immediately, wishing to repair and arrest my action.  She
+straightened up and cried:
+
+"'Nurse, he has killed me!'
+
+"The old nurse, who had heard the noise, was standing in the
+doorway.  I was still erect, waiting, and not believing myself in
+what had happened.  But at that moment, from under her corset,
+the blood gushed forth.  Then only did I understand that all
+reparation was impossible, and promptly I decided that it was not
+even necessary, that all had happened in accordance with my wish,
+and that I had fulfilled my desire.  I waited until she fell, and
+until the nurse, exclaiming, 'Oh, my God!' ran to her; then only
+I threw away the dagger and went out of the room.
+
+"'I must not be agitated.  I must be conscious of what I am
+doing,' I said to myself, looking neither at her nor at the old
+nurse.  The latter cried and called the maid.  I passed through
+the hall, and, after having sent the maid, started for my study.
+
+"'What shall I do now?' I asked myself.
+
+"And immediately I understood what I should do.  Directly after
+entering the study, I went straight to the wall, took down the
+revolver, and examined it attentively.  It was loaded.  Then I
+placed it on the table.  Next I picked up the sheath of the
+dagger, which had dropped down behind the sofa, and then I sat
+down.  I remained thus for a long time.  I thought of nothing, I
+did not try to remember anything.  I heard a stifled noise of
+steps, a movement of objects and of tapestries, then the arrival
+of a person, and then the arrival of another person.  Then I saw
+Gregor bring into my room the baggage from the railway; as if any
+one needed it!
+
+"'Have you heard what has happened?' I asked him.  'Have you told
+the dvornik to inform the police?'
+
+"He made no answer, and went out.  I rose, closed the door, took
+the cigarettes and the matches, and began to smoke.  I had not
+finished one cigarette, when a drowsy feeling came over me and
+sent me into a deep sleep.  I surely slept two hours.  I remember
+having dreamed that I was on good terms with her, that after a
+quarrel we were in the act of making up, that something prevented
+us, but that we were friends all the same.
+
+"A knock at the door awoke me.
+
+"'It is the police,' thought I, as I opened my eyes.  'I have
+killed, I believe.  But perhaps it is SHE; perhaps nothing has
+happened.'
+
+"Another knock.  I did not answer.  I was solving the question:
+'Has it happened or not? Yes, it has happened.'
+
+"I remembered the resistance of the corset, and then. . . . 
+'Yes, it has happened.  Yes, it has happened.  Yes, now I must
+execute myself,' said I to myself.
+
+"I said it, but I knew well that I should not kill myself. 
+Nevertheless, I rose and took the revolver, but, strange thing, I
+remembered that formerly I had very often had suicidal ideas,
+that that very night, on the cars, it had seemed to me easy,
+especially easy because I thought how it would stupefy her.  Now
+I not only could not kill myself, but I could not even think of
+it.
+
+"'Why do it?' I asked myself, without answering.
+
+"Another knock at the door.
+
+"'Yes, but I must first know who is knocking.  I have time
+enough.'
+
+"I put the revolver back on the table, and hid it under my
+newspaper.  I went to the door and drew back the bolt.
+
+"It was my wife's sister,--a good and stupid widow.
+
+"'Basile, what does this mean?' said she, and her tears, always
+ready, began to flow.
+
+"'What do you want?' I asked roughly.
+
+"I saw clearly that there was no necessity of being rough with
+her, but I could not speak in any other tone.
+
+"'Basile, she is dying.  Ivan Fedorowitch says so.'
+
+"Ivan Fedorowitch was the doctor, HER doctor, her counsellor.
+
+"'Is he here?' I inquired.
+
+"And all my hatred of her arose anew.
+
+"Well, what?
+
+"'Basile, go to her!  Ah! how terrible it is!' said she.
+
+"'Go to her?' I asked myself; and immediately I made answer to
+myself that I ought to go, that probably that was the thing that
+is usually done when a husband like myself kills his wife, that
+it was absolutely necessary that I should go and see her.
+
+"'If that is the proper thing, I must go,' I repeated to myself. 
+'Yes, if it is necessary, I shall still have time,' said I to
+myself, thinking of my intention of blowing my brains out.
+
+"And I followed my sister-in-law.  'Now there are going to be
+phrases and grimaces, but I will not yield,' I declared to
+myself.
+
+"'Wait,' said I to my sister-in-law, 'it is stupid to be without
+boots.  Let me at least put on my slippers.'
+
+  
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+"Strange thing!  Again, when I had left my study, and was passing
+through the familiar rooms, again the hope came to me that
+nothing had happened.  But the odor of the drugs, iodoform and
+phenic acid, brought me back to a sense of reality.
+
+"'No, everything has happened.'
+
+"In passing through the hall, beside the children's chamber, I
+saw little Lise.  She was looking at me, with eyes that were full
+of fear.  I even thought that all the children were looking at
+me.  As I approached the door of our sleeping-room, a servant
+opened it from within, and came out.  The first thing that I
+noticed was HER light gray dress upon a chair, all dark with
+blood.  On our common bed she was stretched, with knees drawn up.
+
+She lay very high, upon pillows, with her chemise half open. 
+Linen had been placed upon the wound.  A heavy smell of iodoform
+filled the room.  Before, and more than anything else, I was
+astonished at her face, which was swollen and bruised under the
+eyes and over a part of the nose.  This was the result of the
+blow that I had struck her with my elbow, when she had tried to
+hold me back.  Of beauty there was no trace left.  I saw
+something hideous in her.  I stopped upon the threshold.
+
+"'Approach, approach her,' said her sister.
+
+"'Yes, probably she repents,' thought I; 'shall I forgive her? 
+Yes, she is dying, I must forgive her,' I added, trying to be
+generous.
+
+"I approached the bedside.  With difficulty she raised her eyes,
+one of which was swollen, and uttered these words haltingly:
+
+"'You have accomplished what you desired.  You have killed me.'
+
+"And in her face, through the physical sufferings, in spite of
+the approach of death, was expressed the same old hatred, so
+familiar to me.
+
+"'The children . . . I will not give them to you . . . all the
+same. . . .  She (her sister) shall take them.' . . .
+
+"But of that which I considered essential, of her fault, of her
+treason, one would have said that she did not think it necessary
+to say even a word.
+
+"'Yes, revel in what you have done.'
+
+"And she sobbed.
+
+"At the door stood her sister with the children.
+
+"'Yes, see what you have done!'
+
+"I cast a glance at the children, and then at her bruised and
+swollen face, and for the first time I forgot myself (my rights,
+my pride), and for the first time I saw in her a human being, a
+sister.
+
+"And all that which a moment before had been so offensive to me
+now seemed to me so petty,--all this jealousy,--and, on the
+contrary, what I had done seemed to me so important that I felt
+like bending over, approaching my face to her hand, and saying:
+
+"'Forgive me!'
+
+"But I did not dare.  She was silent, with eyelids lowered,
+evidently having no strength to speak further.  Then her deformed
+face began to tremble and shrivel, and she feebly pushed me
+back.
+
+"'Why has all this happened?  Why?'
+
+"'Forgive me,' said I.
+
+"'Yes, if you had not killed me,' she cried suddenly, and her
+eyes shone feverishly.  'Forgiveness--that is nothing. . . .  If
+I only do not die!  Ah, you have accomplished what you desired! 
+I hate you!'
+
+"Then she grew delirious.  She was frightened, and cried:
+
+"'Fire, I do not fear . . . but strike them all . . .  He has
+gone. . . .  He has gone.' . . .
+
+"The delirium continued.  She no longer recognized the children,
+not even little Lise, who had approached.  Toward noon she died. 
+As for me, I was arrested before her death, at eight o'clock in
+the morning.  They took me to the police station, and then to
+prison, and there, during eleven months, awaiting the verdict, I
+reflected upon myself, and upon my past, and I understood it. 
+Yes, I began to understand from the third day.  The third day
+they took me to the house." . . .
+
+Posdnicheff seemed to wish to add something, but, no longer
+having the strength to repress his sobs, he stopped.  After a few
+minutes, having recovered his calmness, he resumed:
+
+"I began to understand only when I saw her in the coffin." . . .
+
+He uttered a sob, and then immediately continued, with haste:
+
+"Then only, when I saw her dead face, did I understand all that I
+had done.  I understood that it was I, I, who had killed her.  I
+understood that I was the cause of the fact that she, who had
+been a moving, living, palpitating being, had now become
+motionless and cold, and that there was no way of repairing this
+thing. He who has not lived through that cannot understand it."
+
+---------- 
+
+We remained silent a long time.  Posdnicheff sobbed and trembled
+before me.  His face had become delicate and long, and his mouth
+had grown larger.
+
+"Yes," said he suddenly, "if I had known what I now know, I
+should never have married her, never, not for anything."
+
+Again we remained silent for a long time.
+
+"Yes, that is what I have done, that is my experience, We must
+understand the real meaning of the words of the Gospel,--Matthew,
+V. 28,--'that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
+committed adultery'; and these words relate to the wife, to the
+sister, and not only to the wife of another, but especially to
+one's own wife."
+
+THE END.
+
+If the reading of this book has interested you, do not fail to
+get its sequel, entitled "KREUTZER SONATA BEARING FRUIT, by
+Pauline Grayson, which is an exceedingly interesting narrative
+showing one of the results of the ideas set forth in "Kreutzer
+Sonata."  It is bound in paper covers and will be sent by mail,
+postage paid, upon receipt of 25 cents.  Address all orders to J.
+S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 57 Rose Street, New York.
+
+LESSON OF "THE KREUTZER SONATA."
+
+----------
+
+I have received, and still continue to receive, numbers of
+letters from persons who are perfect strangers to me, asking me
+to state in plain and simple language my own views on the subject
+handled in the story entitled "The Kreutzer Sonata."  With this
+request I shall now endeavor to comply.
+
+My views on the question may be succinctly stated as follows:
+Without entering into details, it will be generally admitted that
+I am accurate in saying that many people condone in young men a
+course of conduct with regard to the other sex which is
+incompatible with strict morality, and that this dissoluteness is
+pardoned generally.  Both parents and the government, in
+consequence of this view, may be said to wink at profligacy, and
+even in the last resource to encourage its practice.  I am of
+opinion that this is not right.
+
+It is not possible that the health of one class should
+necessitate the ruin of another, and, in consequence, it is our
+first duty to turn a deaf ear to such an essential immoral
+doctrine, no matter how strongly society may have established or
+law protected it.  Moreover, it needs to be fully recognized that
+men are rightly to be held responsible for the consequences of
+their own acts, and that these are no longer to be visited on the
+woman alone.  It follows from this that it is the duty of men who
+do not wish to lead a life of infamy to practice such continence
+in respect to all woman as they would were the female society in
+which they move made up exclusively of their own mothers and
+sisters.
+
+A more rational mode of life should be adopted which would
+include abstinence from all alcoholic drinks, from excess in
+eating and from flesh meat, on the one hand, and recourse to
+physical labor on the other.  I am not speaking of gymnastics, or
+of any of those occupations which may be fitly described as
+playing at work;  I mean the genuine toil that fatigues.  No one
+need go far in search of proofs that this kind of abstemious
+living is not merely possible, but far less hurtful to health
+than excess.  Hundreds of instances are known to every one.  This
+is my first contention.
+
+In the second place, I think that of late years, through various
+reasons which I need not enter, but among which the
+above-mentioned laxity of opinion in society and the frequent
+idealization of the subject in current literature and painting
+may be mentioned, conjugal infidelity has become more common and
+is considered less reprehensible.  I am of opinion that this is
+not right.  The origin of the evil is twofold.  It is due, in the
+first place, to a natural instinct, and, in the second, to the
+elevation of this instinct to a place to which it does not
+rightly belong.  This being so, the evil can only be remedied by
+effecting a change in the views now in vogue about "falling in
+love" and all that this term implies, by educating men and women
+at home through family influence and example, and abroad by means
+of healthy public opinion, to practice that abstinence which
+morality and Christianity alike enjoin.  This is my second
+contention.
+
+In the third place I am of opinion that another consequence of
+the false light in which "falling in love," and what it leads to,
+are viewed in our society, is that the birth of children has lost
+its pristine significance, and that modern marriages are
+conceived less and less from the point of view of the family.  I
+am of opinion that this is not right.  This is my third
+contention.
+
+In the fourth place, I am of opinion that the children (who in
+our society are considered an obstacle to enjoyment--an unlucky
+accident, as it were) are educated not with a view to the problem
+which they will be one day called on to face and to solve, but
+solely with an eye to the pleasure which they may be made to
+yield to their parents.  The consequence is, that the children of
+human beings are brought up for all the world like the young of
+animals, the chief care of their parents being not to train them
+to such work as is worthy of men and women, but to increase their
+weight, or add a cubit to their stature, to make them spruce,
+sleek, well-fed, and comely.  They rig them out in all manner of
+fantastic costumes, wash them, over-feed them, and refuse to make
+them work.  If the children of the lower orders differ in this
+last respect from those of the well-to-do classes, the difference
+is merely formal; they work from sheer necessity, and not because
+their parents recognize work as a duty.  And in over-fed
+children, as in over-fed animals, sensuality is engendered
+unnaturally early.
+
+Fashionable dress to-day, the course of reading, plays, music,
+dances, luscious food, all the elements of our modern life, in a
+word, from the pictures on the little boxes of sweetmeats up to
+the novel, the tale, and the poem, contribute to fan this
+sensuality into a strong, consuming flame, with the result that
+sexual vices and diseases have come to be the normal conditions
+of the period of tender youth, and often continue into the riper
+age of full-blown manhood.  And I am of opinion that this is not
+right.
+
+It is high time it ceased.  The children of human beings should
+not be brought up as if they were animals; and we should set up
+as the object and strive to maintain as the result of our labors
+something better and nobler than a well-dressed body.  This is my
+fourth contention.
+
+In the fifth place, I am of opinion that, owing to the
+exaggerated and erroneous significance attributed by our society
+to love and to the idealized states that accompany and succeed
+it, the best energies of our men and women are drawn forth and
+exhausted during the most promising period of life; those of the
+men in the work of looking for, choosing, and winning the most
+desirable objects of love, for which purpose lying and fraud are
+held to be quite excusable; those of the women and girls in
+alluring men and decoying them into liaisons or marriage by the
+most questionable means conceivable, as an instance of which the
+present fashions in evening dress may be cited.  I am of opinion
+that this is not right.
+
+The truth is, that the whole affair has been exalted by poets and
+romancers to an undue importance, and that love in its various
+developments is not a fitting object to consume the best energies
+of men.  People set it before them and strive after it, because
+their view of life is as vulgar and brutish as is that other
+conception frequently met with in the lower stages of
+development, which sees in luscious and abundant food an end
+worthy of man's best efforts.  Now, this is not right and should
+not be done.  And, in order to avoid doing it, it is only needful
+to realize the fact that whatever truly deserves to be held up as
+a worthy object of man's striving and working, whether it be the
+service of humanity, of one's country, of science, of art, not to
+speak of the service of God, is far above and beyond the sphere
+of personal enjoyment.  Hence, it follows that not only to form a
+liaison, but even to contract marriage, is, from a Christian
+point of view, not a progress, but a fall. Love, and all the
+states that accompany and follow it, however we may try in prose
+and verse to prove the contrary, never do and never can
+facilitate the attainment of an aim worthy of men, but always
+make it more difficult.  This is my fifth contention.
+
+How about the human race?  If we admit that celibacy is better
+and nobler than marriage, evidently the human race will come to
+an end.  But, if the logical conclusion of the argument is that
+the human race will become extinct, the whole reasoning is wrong.
+
+To that I reply that the argument is not mine; I did not invent
+it.  That it is incumbent on mankind so to strive, and that
+celibacy is preferable to marriage, are truths revealed by Christ
+1,900 years ago, set forth in our catechisms, and professed by us
+as followers of Christ.
+
+Chastity and celibacy, it is urged, cannot constitute the ideal
+of humanity, because chastity would annihilate the race which
+strove to realize it, and humanity cannot set up as its ideal its
+own annihilation.  It may be pointed out in reply that only that
+is a true ideal, which, being unattainable, admits of infinite
+gradation in degrees of proximity.  Such is the Christian ideal
+of the founding of God's kingdom, the union of all living
+creatures by the bonds of love.  The conception of its attainment
+is incompatible with the conception of the movement of life. 
+What kind of life could subsist if all living creatures were
+joined together by the bonds of love?  None.  Our conception of
+life is inseparably bound up with the conception of a continual
+striving after an unattainable ideal.
+
+But even if we suppose the Christian ideal of perfect chastity
+realized, what then?  We should merely find ourselves face to
+face on the one hand with the familiar teaching of religion, one
+of whose dogmas is that the world will have an end; and on the
+other of so-called science, which informs us that the sun is
+gradually losing its heat, the result of which will in time be
+the extinction of the human race.
+
+Now there is not and cannot be such an institution as Christian
+marriage, just as there cannot be such a thing as a Christian
+liturgy (Matt. vi. 5-12; John iv. 21), nor Christian teachers,
+nor church fathers (Matt. xxiii. 8-10), nor Christian armies,
+Christian law courts, nor Christian States.  This is what was
+always taught and believed by true Christians of the first and
+following centuries.  A Christian's ideal is not marriage, but
+love for God and for his neighbor.  Consequently in the eyes of a
+Christian relations in marriage not only do not constitute a
+lawful, right, and happy state, as our society and our churches
+maintain, but, on the contrary, are always a fall.
+
+Such a thing as Christian marriage never was and never could be. 
+Christ did not marry, nor did he establish marriage; neither did
+his disciples marry.  But if Christian marriage cannot exist,
+there is such a thing as a Christian view of marriage.  And this
+is how it may be formulated: A Christian (and by this term I
+understand not those who call themselves Christians merely
+because they were baptized and still receive the sacrament once a
+year, but those whose lives are shaped and regulated by the
+teachings of Christ), I say, cannot view the marriage relation
+otherwise than as a deviation from the doctrine of Christ,--as a
+sin.  This is clearly laid down in Matt. v. 28, and the ceremony
+called Christian marriage does not alter its character one jot. 
+A Christian will never, therefore, desire marriage, but will
+always avoid it.
+
+If the light of truth dawns upon a Christian when he is already
+married, or if, being a Christian, from weakness he enters into
+marital relations with the ceremonies of the church, or without
+them, he has no other alternative than to abide with his wife
+(and the wife with her husband, if it is she who is a Christian)
+and to aspire together with her to free themselves of their sin. 
+This is the Christian view of marriage; and there cannot be any
+other for a man who honestly endeavors to shape his life in
+accordance with the teachings of Christ.
+
+To very many persons the thoughts I have uttered here and in "The
+Kreutzer Sonata" will seem strange, vague, even contradictory.
+They certainly do contradict, not each other, but the whole tenor
+of our lives, and involuntarily a doubt arises, "on which side is
+truth,--on the side of the thoughts which seem true and
+well-founded, or on the side of the lives of others and myself?" 
+I, too, was weighed down by that same doubt when writing "The
+Kreutzer Sonata."  I had not the faintest presentiment that the
+train of thought I had started would lead me whither it did.  I
+was terrified by my own conclusion, and I was at first disposed
+to reject it, but it was impossible not to hearken to the voice
+of my reason and my conscience. And so, strange though they may
+appear to many, opposed as they undoubtedly are to the trend and
+tenor of our lives, and incompatible though they may prove with
+what I have heretofore thought and uttered, I have no choice but
+to accept them.  "But man is weak," people will object.  "His
+task should be regulated by his strength."
+
+This is tantamount to saying, "My hand is weak.  I cannot draw a
+straight line,--that is, a line which will be the shortest line
+between two given points,--and so, in order to make it more easy
+for myself, I, intending to draw a straight, will choose for my
+model a crooked line."
+
+The weaker my hand, the greater the need that my model should be
+perfect.         
+
+LEO TOLSTOI.
+
+
+
+IVAN THE FOOL.   Copyright, 1891, by CHAS. L. WEBSTER & CO.
+
+----------
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+In a certain kingdom there lived a rich peasant, who had three
+sons--Simeon (a soldier), Tarras-Briukhan (fat man), and Ivan (a
+fool)--and one daughter, Milania, born dumb.  Simeon went to
+war, to serve the Czar; Tarras went to a city and became a
+merchant; and Ivan, with his sister, remained at home to work on
+the farm.
+
+For his valiant service in the army, Simeon received an estate
+with high rank, and married a noble's daughter.  Besides his
+large pay, he was in receipt of a handsome income from his
+estate; yet he was unable to make ends meet.  What the husband
+saved, the wife wasted in extravagance.  One day Simeon went to
+the estate to collect his income, when the steward informed him
+that there was no income, saying:
+
+"We have neither horses, cows, fishing-nets, nor implements; it
+is necessary first to buy everything, and then to look for
+income."
+
+Simeon thereupon went to his father and said:
+
+"You are rich, batiushka [little father], but you have given
+nothing to me.  Give me one-third of what you possess as my
+share, and I will transfer it to my estate."
+
+The old man replied: "You did not help to bring prosperity to our
+household.  For what reason, then, should you now demand the
+third part of everything?  It would be unjust to Ivan and his
+sister."
+
+"Yes," said Simeon; "but he is a fool, and she was born dumb. 
+What need have they of anything?"
+
+"See what Ivan will say."
+
+Ivan's reply was: "Well, let him take his share."
+
+Simeon took the portion allotted to him, and went again to serve
+in the army.
+
+Tarras also met with success.  He became rich and married a
+merchant's daughter, but even this failed to satisfy his desires,
+and he also went to his father and said, "Give me my share."
+
+The old man, however, refused to comply with his request, saying:
+"You had no hand in the accumulation of our property, and what
+our household contains is the result of Ivan's hard work.  It
+would be unjust," he repeated, "to Ivan and his sister."
+
+Tarras replied: "But he does not need it.  He is a fool, and
+cannot marry, for no one will have him; and sister does not
+require anything, for she was born dumb."  Turning then to Ivan
+he continued: "Give me half the grain you have, and I will not
+touch the implements or fishing-nets; and from the cattle I will
+take only the dark mare, as she is not fit to plow."
+
+Ivan laughed and said: "Well, I will go and arrange matters so
+that Tarras may have his share," whereupon Tarras took the brown
+mare with the grain to town, leaving Ivan with one old horse to
+work on as before and support his father, mother, and sister.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER II.
+
+It was disappointing to the Stary Tchert (Old Devil) that the
+brothers did not quarrel over the division of the property, and
+that they separated peacefully; and he cried out, calling his
+three small devils (Tchertionki).
+
+"See here," said he, "there are living three brothers--Simeon the
+soldier, Tarras-Briukhan, and Ivan the Fool.  It is necessary
+that they should quarrel.  Now they live peacefully, and enjoy
+each other's hospitality.  The Fool spoiled all my plans.  Now
+you three go and work with them in such a manner that they will
+be ready to tear each other's eyes out.  Can you do this?"
+
+"We can," they replied.
+
+"How will you accomplish it?"
+
+"In this way: We will first ruin them to such an extent that they
+will have nothing to eat, and we will then gather them together
+in one place where we are sure that they will fight."
+
+"Very well; I see you understand your business.  Go, and do not
+return to me until you have created a feud between the three
+brothers--or I will skin you alive."
+
+The three small devils went to a swamp to consult as to the best
+means of accomplishing their mission.  They disputed for a long
+time--each one wanting the easiest part of the work--and not
+being able to agree, concluded to draw lots; by which it was
+decided that the one who was first finished had to come and help
+the others.  This agreement being entered into, they appointed a
+time when they were again to meet in the swamp--to find out who
+was through and who needed assistance.
+
+The time having arrived, the young devils met in the swamp as
+agreed, when each related his experience.  The first, who went to
+Simeon, said: "I have succeeded in my undertaking, and to-morrow
+Simeon returns to his father."
+
+His comrades, eager for particulars, inquired how he had done
+it.
+
+"Well," he began, "the first thing I did was to blow some courage
+into his veins, and, on the strength of it, Simeon went to the
+Czar and offered to conquer the whole world for him.  The Emperor
+made him commander-in-chief of the forces, and sent him with an
+army to fight the Viceroy of India.  Having started on their
+mission of conquest, they were unaware that I, following in their
+wake, had wet all their powder.  I also went to the Indian ruler
+and showed him how I could create numberless soldiers from straw.
+
+Simeon's army, seeing that they were surrounded by such a vast
+number of Indian warriors of my creation, became frightened, and
+Simeon commanded to fire from cannons and rifles, which of course
+they were unable to do.  The soldiers, discouraged, retreated in
+great disorder.  Thus Simeon brought upon himself the terrible
+disgrace of defeat. His estate was confiscated, and to-morrow he
+is to be executed.  All that remains for me to do, therefore,"
+concluded the young devil, "is to release him to-morrow morning. 
+Now, then, who wants my assistance?"
+
+The second small devil (from Tarras) then related his story.
+
+"I do not need any help," he began.  "My business is also all
+right.  My work with Tarras will be finished in one week.  In the
+first place I made him grow thin.  He afterward became so
+covetous that he wanted to possess everything he saw, and he
+spent all the money he had in the purchase of immense quantities
+of goods.  When his capital was gone he still continued to buy
+with borrowed money, and has become involved in such difficulties
+that he cannot free himself.  At the end of one week the date for
+the payment of his notes will have expired, and, his goods being
+seized upon, he will become a bankrupt; and he also will return
+to his father."
+
+At the conclusion of this narrative they inquired of the third
+devil how things had fared between him and Ivan.
+
+"Well," said he, "my report is not so encouraging.  The first
+thing I did was to spit into his jug of quass [a sour drink made
+from rye], which made him sick at his stomach.  He afterward went
+to plow his summer-fallow, but I made the soil so hard that the
+plow could scarcely penetrate it.  I thought the Fool would not
+succeed, but he started to work nevertheless.  Moaning with pain,
+he still continued to labor.  I broke one plow, but he replaced
+it with another, fixing it securely, and resumed work.  Going
+beneath the surface of the ground I took hold of the plowshares,
+but did not succeed in stopping Ivan.  He pressed so hard, and
+the colter was so sharp, that my hands were cut; and despite my
+utmost efforts, he went over all but a small portion of the
+field."
+
+He concluded with: "Come, brothers, and help me, for if we do not
+conquer him our whole enterprise will be a failure.  If the Fool
+is permitted successfully to conduct his farming, they will have
+no need, for he will support his brothers."
+
+ 
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Ivan having succeeded in plowing all but a small portion of his
+land, he returned the next day to finish it.  The pain in his
+stomach continued, but he felt that he must go on with his work. 
+He tried to start his plow, but it would not move; it seemed to
+have struck a hard root.  It was the small devil in the ground
+who had wound his feet around the plowshares and held them.
+
+"This is strange," thought Ivan.  "There were never any roots
+here before, and this is surely one."
+
+Ivan put his hand in the ground, and, feeling something soft,
+grasped and pulled it out.  It was like a root in appearance, but
+seemed to possess life.  Holding it up he saw that it was a
+little devil.  Disgusted, he exclaimed, "See the nasty thing,"
+and he proceeded to strike it a blow, intending to kill it, when
+the young devil cried out:
+
+"Do not kill me, and I will grant your every wish."
+
+"What can you do for me?"
+
+"Tell me what it is you most wish for," the little devil replied.
+
+Ivan, peasant-fashion, scratched the back of his head as he
+thought, and finally he said:
+
+"I am dreadfully sick at my stomach.  Can you cure me?"
+
+"I can," the little devil said.
+
+"Then do so."
+
+The little devil bent toward the earth and began searching for
+roots, and when he found them he gave them to Ivan, saying: "If
+you will swallow some of these you will be immediately cured of
+whatsoever disease you are afflicted with."
+
+Ivan did as directed, and obtained instant relief.
+
+"I beg of you to let me go now," the little devil pleaded; "I
+will pass into the earth, never to return."
+
+"Very well; you may go, and God bless you;" and as Ivan
+pronounced the name of God, the small devil disappeared into the
+earth like a flash, and only a slight opening in the ground 
+remained.
+
+Ivan placed in his hat what roots he had left, and proceeded to
+plow.  Soon finishing his work, he turned his plow over and
+returned home.
+
+When he reached the house he found his brother Simeon and his
+wife seated at the supper-table.  His estate had been
+confiscated, and he himself had barely escaped execution by
+making his way out of prison, and having nothing to live upon had
+come back to his father for support.
+
+Turning to Ivan he said: "I came to ask you to care for us until
+I can find something to do."
+
+"Very well," Ivan replied; "you may remain with us."
+
+Just as Ivan was about to sit down to the table Simeon's wife
+made a wry face, indicating that she did not like the smell of
+Ivan's sheep-skin coat; and turning to her husband she said, "I
+shall not sit at the table with a moujik [peasant] who smells
+like that."
+
+Simeon the soldier turned to his brother and said: "My lady
+objects to the smell of your clothes.  You may eat in the
+porch."
+
+Ivan said: "Very well, it is all the same to me.  I will soon
+have to go and feed my horse any way."
+
+Ivan took some bread in one hand, and his kaftan (coat) in the
+other, and left the room.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+The small devil finished with Simeon that night, and according to
+agreement went to the assistance of his comrade who had charge of
+Ivan, that he might help to conquer the Fool.  He went to the
+field and searched everywhere, but could find nothing but the
+hole through which the small devil had disappeared.
+
+"Well, this is strange," he said; "something must have happened
+to my companion, and I will have to take his place and continue
+the work he began.  The Fool is through with his plowing, so I
+must look about me for some other means of compassing his
+destruction.  I must overflow his meadow and prevent him from
+cutting the grass."
+
+The little devil accordingly overflowed the meadow with muddy
+water, and, when Ivan went at dawn next morning with his scythe
+set and sharpened and tried to mow the grass, he found that it
+resisted all his efforts and would not yield to the implement as
+usual.
+
+Many times Ivan tried to cut the grass, but always without
+success.  At last, becoming weary of the effort, he decided to
+return home and have his scythe again sharpened, and also to
+procure a quantity of bread, saying: "I will come back here and
+will not leave until I have mown all the meadow, even if it
+should take a whole week."
+
+Hearing this, the little devil became thoughtful, saying: "That
+Ivan is a koolak [hard case], and I must think of some other way
+of conquering him."
+
+Ivan soon returned with his sharpened scythe and started to mow.
+
+The small devil hid himself in the grass, and as the point of the
+scythe came down he buried it in the earth and made it almost
+impossible for Ivan to move the implement.  He, however,
+succeeded in mowing all but one small spot in the swamp, where
+again the small devil hid himself, saying: "Even if he should cut
+my hands I will prevent him from accomplishing his work."
+
+When Ivan came to the swamp he found that the grass was not very
+thick.  Still, the scythe would not work, which made him so angry
+that he worked with all his might, and one blow more powerful
+than the others cut off a portion of the small devil's tail, who
+had hidden himself there.
+
+Despite the little devil's efforts he succeeded in finishing his
+work, when he returned home and ordered his sister to gather up
+the grass while he went to another field to cut rye.  But the
+devil preceded him there, and fixed the rye in such a manner that
+it was almost impossible for Ivan to cut it; however, after
+continuous hard labor he succeeded, and when he was through with
+the rye he said to himself: "Now I will start to mow oats."
+
+On hearing this, the little devil thought to himself: "I could
+not prevent him from mowing the rye, but I will surely stop him
+from mowing the oats when the morning comes."
+
+Early next day, when the devil came to the field, he found that
+the oats had been already mowed.  Ivan did it during the night,
+so as to avoid the loss that might have resulted from the grain
+being too ripe and dry.  Seeing that Ivan again had escaped him,
+the little devil became greatly enraged, saying:
+
+"He cut me all over and made me tired, that fool.  I did not meet
+such misfortune even on the battle-field.  He does not even
+sleep;" and the devil began to swear.  "I cannot follow him," he
+continued.  "I will go now to the heaps and make everything
+rotten."
+
+Accordingly he went to a heap of the new-mown grain and began his
+fiendish work.  After wetting it he built a fire and warmed
+himself, and soon was fast asleep.
+
+Ivan harnessed his horse, and, with his sister, went to bring the
+rye home from the field.
+
+After lifting a couple of sheaves from the first heap his
+pitchfork came into contact with the little devil's back, which
+caused the latter to howl with pain and to jump around in every
+direction.  Ivan exclaimed:
+
+"See here!  What nastiness!  You again here?"
+
+"I am another one!" said the little devil. "That was my brother. 
+I am the one who was sent to your brother Simeon." 
+
+"Well," said Ivan, "it matters not who you are.  I will fix you
+all the same."
+
+As Ivan was about to strike the first blow the devil pleaded:
+"Let me go and I will do you no more harm.  I will do whatever
+you wish."
+
+"What can you do for me?" asked Ivan.
+
+"I can make soldiers from almost anything."
+
+"And what will they be good for?"
+
+"Oh, they will do everything for you!"
+
+"Can they sing?"
+
+"They can."
+
+"Well, make them."
+
+"Take a bunch of straw and scatter it on the ground, and see if
+each straw will not turn into a soldier."
+
+Ivan shook the straws on the ground, and, as he expected, each
+straw turned into a soldier, and they began marching with a band
+at their head.
+
+"Ishty [look you], that was well done!  How it will delight the
+village maidens!" he exclaimed.
+
+The small devil now said: "Let me go; you do not need me any
+longer."
+
+But Ivan said: "No, I will not let you go just yet.  You have
+converted the straw into soldiers, and now I want you to turn
+them again into straw, as I cannot afford to lose it, but I want
+it with the grain on."
+
+The devil replied: "Say: 'So many soldiers, so much straw.'"
+
+Ivan did as directed, and got back his rye with the straw.
+
+The small devil again begged for his release.
+
+Ivan, taking him from the pitchfork, said: "With God's blessing
+you may depart"; and, as before at the mention of God's name, the
+little devil was hurled into the earth like a flash, and nothing
+was left but the hole to show where he had gone.
+
+Soon afterward Ivan returned home, to find his brother Tarras and
+his wife there.  Tarras-Briukhan could not pay his debts, and was
+forced to flee from his creditors and seek refuge under his
+father's roof.  Seeing Ivan, he said: "Well, Ivan, may we remain
+here until I start in some new business?"
+
+Ivan replied as he had before to Simeon: "Yes, you are perfectly
+welcome to remain here as long as it suits you."
+
+With that announcement he removed his coat and seated himself at
+the supper-table with the others.  But Tarras-Briukhan's wife
+objected to the smell of his clothes, saying: "I cannot eat with
+a fool; neither can I stand the smell."
+
+Then Tarras-Briukhan said: "Ivan, from your clothes there comes a
+bad smell; go and eat by yourself in the porch."
+
+"Very well," said Ivan; and he took some bread and went out as
+ordered, saying, "It is time for me to feed my mare."
+
+ 
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The small devil who had charge of Tarras finished with him that
+night, and according to agreement proceeded to the assistance of
+the other two to help them conquer Ivan.  Arriving at the plowed
+field he looked around for his comrades, but found only the hole
+through which one had disappeared; and on going to the meadow he
+discovered the severed tail of the other, and in the rye-field he
+found yet another hole.
+
+"Well," he thought, "it is quite clear that my comrades have met
+with some great misfortune, and that I will have to take their
+places and arrange the feud between the brothers."
+
+The small devil then went in search of Ivan. But he, having
+finished with the field, was nowhere to be found.  He had gone to
+the forest to cut logs to build homes for his brothers, as they
+found it inconvenient for so many to live under the same
+roof.
+
+The small devil at last discovered his whereabouts, and going to
+the forest climbed into the branches of the trees and began to
+interfere with Ivan's work.  Ivan cut down a tree, which failed,
+however, to fall to the ground, becoming entangled in the
+branches of other trees; yet he succeeded in getting it down
+after a hard struggle.  In chopping down the next tree he met
+with the same difficulties, and also with the third.  Ivan had
+supposed he could cut down fifty trees in a day, but he succeeded
+in chopping but ten before darkness put an end to his labors for
+a time.  He was now exhausted, and, perspiring profusely, he sat
+down alone in the woods to rest.  He soon after resumed his work,
+cutting down one more tree; but the effort gave him a pain in his
+back, and he was obliged to rest again.  Seeing this, the small
+devil was full of joy.
+
+"Well," he thought, "now he is exhausted and will stop work, and
+I will rest also."  He then seated himself on some branches and
+rejoiced.
+
+Ivan again arose, however, and, taking his axe, gave the tree a
+terrific blow from the opposite side, which felled it instantly
+to the ground, carrying the little devil with it; and Ivan,
+proceeding to cut the branches, found the devil alive.  Very much
+astonished, Ivan exclaimed:
+
+"Look you!  Such nastiness!  Are you again here?"
+
+"I am another one," replied the devil.  "I was with your brother
+Tarras."
+
+"Well," said Ivan, "that makes no difference; I will fix you." 
+And he was about to strike him a blow with the axe when the devil
+pleaded:
+
+"Do not kill me, and whatever you wish you shall have."
+
+Ivan asked, "What can you do?"
+
+"I can make for you all the money you wish."
+
+Ivan then told the devil he might proceed, whereupon the latter
+began to explain to him how he might become rich.
+
+"Take," said he to Ivan, "the leaves of this oak tree and rub
+them in your hands, and the gold will fall to the ground."
+
+Ivan did as he was directed, and immediately the gold began to
+drop about his feet; and he remarked:
+
+"This will be a fine trick to amuse the village boys with."
+
+"Can I now take my departure?" asked the devil, to which Ivan
+replied, "With God's blessing you may go."
+
+At the mention of the name of God, the devil disappeared into the
+earth.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The brothers, having finished their houses, moved into them and
+lived apart from their father and brother.  Ivan, when he had
+completed his plowing, made a great feast, to which he invited
+his brothers, telling them that he had plenty of beer for them to
+drink.  The brothers, however, declined Ivan's hospitality,
+saying, "We have seen the beer moujiks drink, and want none of
+it."
+
+Ivan then gathered around him all the peasants in the village
+and with them drank beer until he became intoxicated, when he
+joined the Khorovody (a street gathering of the village boys and
+girls, who sing songs), and told them they must sing his praises,
+saying that in return he would show them such sights as they had
+never before seen in their lives.  The little girls laughed and
+began to sing songs praising Ivan, and when they had finished
+they said: "Very well; now give us what you said you would."
+
+Ivan replied, "I will soon show you," and, taking an empty bag in
+his hand, he started for the woods.  The little girls laughed as
+they said, "What a fool he is!" and resuming their play they
+forgot all about him.
+
+Some time after Ivan suddenly appeared among them carrying in his
+hand the bag, which was now filled.
+
+"Shall I divide this with you?" he said.
+
+"Yes; divide!" they sang in chorus.
+
+So Ivan put his hand into the bag and drew it out full of gold
+coins, which he scattered among them.
+
+"Batiushka," they cried as they ran to gather up the precious
+pieces.
+
+The moujiks then appeared on the scene and began to fight among
+themselves for the possession of the yellow objects.  In the
+melee one old woman was nearly crushed to death.
+
+Ivan laughed and was greatly amused at the sight of so many
+persons quarrelling over a few pieces of gold.
+
+"Oh! you duratchki" (little fools), he said, "why did you almost
+crush the life out of the old grandmother?  Be more gentle.  I
+have plenty more, and I will give them to you;" whereupon he
+began throwing about more of the coins.
+
+The people gathered around him, and Ivan continued throwing until
+he emptied his bag. They clamored for more, but Ivan replied:
+"The gold is all gone.  Another time I will give you more.  Now
+we will r‚sum‚ our singing and dancing."
+
+The little children sang, but Ivan said to them, "Your songs are
+no good."
+
+The children said, "Then show us how to sing better."
+
+To this Ivan replied, "I will show you people who can sing better
+than you."  With that remark Ivan went to the barn and, securing
+a bundle of straw, did as the little devil had directed him; and
+presently a regiment of soldiers appeared in the village street,
+and he ordered them to sing and dance.
+
+The people were astonished and could not understand how Ivan had
+produced the strangers.
+
+The soldiers sang for some time, to the great delight of the
+villagers; and when Ivan commanded them to stop they instantly
+ceased.
+
+Ivan then ordered them off to the barn, telling the astonished
+and mystified moujiks that they must not follow him.  Reaching
+the barn, he turned the soldiers again into straw and went home
+to sleep off the effects of his debauch.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+The next morning Ivan's exploits were the talk of the village,
+and news of the wonderful things he had done reached the ears of
+his brother Simeon, who immediately went to Ivan to learn all
+about it.
+
+"Explain to me," he said; "from whence did you bring the
+soldiers, and where did you take them?"
+
+"And what do you wish to know for?" asked Ivan.
+
+"Why, with soldiers we can do almost anything we wish--whole
+kingdoms can be conquered," replied Simeon.
+
+This information greatly surprised Ivan, who said: "Well, why did
+you not tell me about this before?  I can make as many as you
+want."
+
+Ivan then took his brother to the barn, but he said: "While I am
+willing to create the soldiers, you must take them away from
+here; for if it should become necessary to feed them, all the
+food in the village would last them only one day."
+
+Simeon promised to do as Ivan wished, whereupon Ivan proceeded to
+convert the straw into soldiers.  Out of one bundle of straw he
+made an entire regiment; in fact, so many soldiers appeared as if
+by magic that there was not a vacant spot in the field.
+
+Turning to Simeon Ivan said, "Well, is there a sufficient
+number?"
+
+Beaming with joy, Simeon replied: "Enough! enough!  Thank you,
+Ivan!"
+
+"Glad you are satisfied," said Ivan, "and if you wish more I will
+make them for you.  I have plenty of straw now."
+
+Simeon divided his soldiers into battalions and regiments, and
+after having drilled them he went forth to fight and to conquer.
+
+Simeon had just gotten safely out of the village with his
+soldiers when Tarras, the other brother, appeared before Ivan--he
+also having heard of the previous day's performance and wanting
+to learn the secret of his power.  He sought Ivan, saying: "Tell
+me the secret of your supply of gold, for if I had plenty of
+money I could with its assistance gather in all the wealth in the
+world."
+
+Ivan was greatly surprised on hearing this statement, and said:
+"You might have told me this before, for I can obtain for you as
+much money as you wish."
+
+Tarras was delighted, and he said, "You might get me about three
+bushels."
+
+"Well," said Ivan, "we will go to the woods, or, better still, we
+will harness the horse, as we could not possibly carry so much
+money ourselves."
+
+The brothers went to the woods and Ivan proceeded to gather the
+oak leaves, which he rubbed between his hands, the dust falling
+to the ground and turning into gold pieces as quickly as it fell.
+
+When quite a pile had accumulated Ivan turned to Tarras and asked
+if he had rubbed enough leaves into money, whereupon Tarras
+replied: "Thank you, Ivan; that will be sufficient for this
+time."
+
+Ivan then said: "If you wish more, come to me and I will rub as
+much as you want, for there are plenty of leaves."
+
+Tarras, with his tarantas (wagon) filled with gold, rode away to
+the city to engage in trade and increase his wealth; and thus
+both brothers went their way, Simeon to fight and Tarras to
+trade.
+
+Simeon's soldiers conquered a kingdom for him and Tarras-Briukhan
+made plenty of money.
+
+Some time afterward the two brothers met and confessed to each
+other the source from whence sprang their prosperity, but they
+were not yet satisfied.
+
+Simeon said: "I have conquered a kingdom and enjoy a very
+pleasant life, but I have not sufficient money to procure food
+for my soldiers;" while Tarras confessed that he was the
+possessor of enormous wealth, but the care of it caused him much
+uneasiness.
+
+"Let us go again to our brother," said Simeon; "I will order him
+to make more soldiers and will give them to you, and you may then
+tell him that he must make more money so that we can buy food for
+them."
+
+They went again to Ivan, and Simeon said: "I have not sufficient
+soldiers; I want you to make me at least two divisions more." 
+But Ivan shook his head as he said: "I will not create soldiers
+for nothing; you must pay me for doing it."
+
+"Well, but you promised," said Simeon.
+
+"I know I did," replied Ivan; "but I have changed my mind since
+that time."
+
+"But, fool, why will you not do as you promised?"
+
+"For the reason that your soldiers kill men, and I will not make
+any more for such a cruel purpose."  With this reply Ivan
+remained stubborn and would not create any more soldiers.
+
+Tarras-Briukhan next approached Ivan and ordered him to make more
+money; but, as in the case of Tarras, Ivan only shook his head,
+as he said: "I will not make you any money unless you pay me for
+doing it.  I cannot work without pay."
+
+Tarras then reminded him of his promise.
+
+"I know I promised," replied Ivan; "but still I must refuse to do
+as you wish."
+
+"But why, fool, will you not fulfill your promise?" asked Tarras.
+
+"For the reason that your gold was the means of depriving
+Mikhailovna of her cow."
+
+"But how did that happen?" inquired Tarras.
+
+"It happened in this way," said Ivan.  "Mikhailovna always kept a
+cow, and her children had plenty of milk to drink; but some time
+ago one of her boys came to me to beg for some milk, and I asked,
+'Where is your cow?' when he replied, 'A clerk of Tarras-Briukhan
+came to our home and offered three gold pieces for her.  Our
+mother could not resist the temptation, and now we have no milk
+to drink.  I gave you the gold pieces for your pleasure, and you
+put them to such poor use that I will not give you any more.'"
+
+The brothers, on hearing this, took their departure to discuss as
+to the best plan to pursue in regard to a settlement of their
+troubles.
+
+Simeon said: "Let us arrange it in this way: I will give you the
+half of my kingdom, and soldiers to keep guard over your wealth;
+and you give me money to feed the soldiers in my half of the
+kingdom."
+
+To this arrangement Tarras agreed, and both the brothers became
+rulers and very happy.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Ivan remained on the farm and worked to support his father,
+mother, and dumb sister.  Once it happened that the old dog,
+which had grown up on the farm, was taken sick, when Ivan thought
+he was dying, and, taking pity on the animal, placed some bread
+in his hat and carried it to him.  It happened that when he
+turned out the bread the root which the little devil had given
+him fell out also.  The old dog swallowed it with the bread and
+was almost instantly cured, when he jumped up and began to wag
+his tail as an expression of joy.  Ivan's father and mother,
+seeing the dog cured so quickly, asked by what means he had
+performed such a miracle.
+
+Ivan replied: "I had some roots which would cure any disease, and
+the dog swallowed one of them."
+
+It happened about that time that the Czar's daughter became ill,
+and her father had it announced in every city, town, and village
+that whosoever would cure her would be richly rewarded; and if
+the lucky person should prove to be a single man he would give
+her in marriage to him.
+
+This announcement, of course, appeared in Ivan's village.
+
+Ivan's father and mother called him and said: "If you have any of
+those wonderful roots, go and cure the Czar's daughter.  You will
+be much happier for having performed such a kind act--indeed, you
+will be made happy for all your after life."
+
+"Very well," said Ivan; and he immediately made ready for the
+journey.  As he reached the porch on his way out he saw a poor
+woman standing directly in his path and holding a broken arm. 
+The woman accosted him, saying:
+
+"I was told that you could cure me, and will you not please do
+so, as I am powerless to do anything for myself?"
+
+Ivan replied: "Very well, my poor woman; I will relieve you if I
+can."
+
+He produced a root which he handed to the poor woman and told her
+to swallow it.
+
+She did as Ivan told her and was instantly cured, and went away
+rejoicing that she had recovered the use of her arm.
+
+Ivan's father and mother came out to wish him good luck on his
+journey, and to them he told the story of the poor woman, saying
+that he had given her his last root.  On hearing this his parents
+were much distressed, as they now believed him to be without the
+means of curing the Czar's daughter, and began to scold him.
+
+"You had pity for a beggar and gave no thought to the Czar's
+daughter," they said.
+
+"I have pity for the Czar's daughter also," replied Ivan, after
+which he harnessed his horse to his wagon and took his seat ready
+for his departure; whereupon his parents said: "Where are you
+going, you fool--to cure the Czar's daughter, and without
+anything to do it with?"
+
+"Very well," replied Ivan, as he drove away.
+
+In due time he arrived at the palace, and the moment he appeared
+on the balcony the Czar's daughter was cured.  The Czar was
+overjoyed and ordered Ivan to be brought into his presence.  He
+dressed him in the richest robes and addressed him as his
+son-in-law.  Ivan was married to the Czarevna, and, the Czar
+dying soon after, Ivan became ruler.  Thus the three brothers
+became rulers in different kingdoms.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The brothers lived and reigned.  Simeon, the eldest brother, with
+his straw soldiers took captive the genuine soldiers and trained
+all alike.  He was feared by every one.
+
+Tarras-Briukhan, the other brother, did not squander the gold he
+obtained from Ivan, but instead greatly increased his wealth, and
+at the same time lived well.  He kept his money in large trunks,
+and, while having more than he knew what to do with, still
+continued to collect money from his subjects.  The people had to
+work for the money to pay the taxes which Tarras levied on them,
+and life was made burdensome to them.
+
+Ivan the Fool did not enjoy his wealth and power to the same
+extent as did his brothers. As soon as his father-in-law, the
+late Czar, was buried, he discarded the Imperial robes which had
+fallen to him and told his wife to put them away, as he had no
+further use for them.  Having cast aside the insignia of his
+rank, he once more donned his peasant garb and started to work as
+of old.
+
+"I felt lonesome," he said, "and began to grow enormously stout,
+and yet I had no appetite, and neither could I sleep."
+
+Ivan sent for his father, mother, and dumb sister, and brought
+them to live with him, and they worked with him at whatever he
+chose to do.
+
+The people soon learned that Ivan was a fool.  His wife one day
+said to him, "The people say you are a fool, Ivan."
+
+"Well, let them think so if they wish," he replied.
+
+His wife pondered this reply for some time, and at last decided
+that if Ivan was a fool she also was one, and that it would be
+useless to go contrary to her husband, thinking affectionately of
+the old proverb that "where the needle goes there goes the thread
+also."  She therefore cast aside her magnificent robes, and,
+putting them into the trunk with Ivan's, dressed herself in cheap
+clothing and joined her dumb sister-in-law, with the intention of
+learning to work.  She succeeded so well that she soon became a
+great help to Ivan.
+
+Seeing that Ivan was a fool, all the wise men left the kingdom
+and only the fools remained. They had no money, their wealth
+consisting only of the products of their labor.  But they lived
+peacefully together, supported themselves in comfort, and had
+plenty to spare for the needy and afflicted.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER X.
+
+The old devil grew tired of waiting for the good news which he
+expected the little devils to bring him.  He waited in vain to
+hear of the ruin of the brothers, so he went in search of the
+emissaries which he had sent to perform that work for him.  After
+looking around for some time, and seeing nothing but the three
+holes in the ground, he decided that they had not succeeded in
+their work and that he would have to do it himself.
+
+The old devil next went in search of the brothers, but he could
+learn nothing of their whereabouts.  After some time he found
+them in their different kingdoms, contented and happy.  This
+greatly incensed the old devil, and he said, "I will now have to
+accomplish their mission myself."
+
+He first visited Simeon the soldier, and appeared before him as a
+voyevoda (general), saying: "You, Simeon, are a great warrior,
+and I also have had considerable experience in warfare, and am
+desirous of serving you."
+
+Simeon questioned the disguised devil, and seeing that he was an
+intelligent man took him into his service.
+
+The new General taught Simeon how to strengthen his army until it
+became very powerful.  New implements of warfare were introduced.
+
+Cannons capable of throwing one hundred balls a minute were also
+constructed, and these, it was expected, would be of deadly
+effect in battle.
+
+Simeon, on the advice of his new General, ordered all young men
+above a certain age to report for drill.  On the same advice
+Simeon established gun-shops, where immense numbers of cannons
+and rifles were made.
+
+The next move of the new General was to have Simeon declare war
+against the neighboring kingdom.  This he did, and with his
+immense army marched into the adjoining territory, which he
+pillaged and burned, destroying more than half the enemy's
+soldiers.  This so frightened the ruler of that country that he
+willingly gave up half of his kingdom to save the other half.
+
+Simeon, overjoyed at his success, declared his intention of
+marching into Indian territory and subduing the Viceroy of that
+country.
+
+But Simeon's intentions reached the ears of the Indian ruler, who
+prepared to do battle with him.  In addition to having secured
+all the latest implements of warfare, he added still others of
+his own invention.  He ordered all boys over fourteen and all
+single women to be drafted into the army, until its proportions
+became much larger than Simeon's.  His cannons and rifles were of
+the same pattern as Simeon's, and he invented a flying-machine
+from which bombs could be thrown into the enemy's camp.
+
+Simeon went forth to conquer the Viceroy with full confidence in
+his own powers to succeed.  This time luck forsook him, and
+instead of being the conqueror he was himself conquered.
+
+The Indian ruler had so arranged his army that Simeon could not
+even get within shooting distance, while the bombs from the
+flying-machine carried destruction and terror in their path,
+completely routing his army, so that Simeon was left alone.
+
+The Viceroy took possession of his kingdom and Simeon had to fly
+for his life.
+
+Having finished with Simeon, the old devil next approached
+Tarras.  He appeared before him disguised as one of the merchants
+of his kingdom, and established factories and began to make
+money.  The "merchant" paid the highest price for everything he
+purchased, and the people ran after him to sell their goods.
+Through this "merchant" they were enabled to make plenty of
+money, paying up all their arrears of taxes as well as the others
+when they came due.
+
+Tarras was overjoyed at this condition of affairs and said:
+"Thanks to this merchant, now I will have more money than before,
+and life will be much pleasanter for me."
+
+He wished to erect new buildings, and advertised for workmen,
+offering the highest prices for all kinds of labor.  Tarras
+thought the people would be as anxious to work as formerly, but
+instead he was much surprised to learn that they were working for
+the "merchant."  Thinking to induce them to leave the "merchant,"
+he increased his offers, but the former, equal to the emergency,
+also raised the wages of his workmen.  Tarras, having plenty of
+money, increased the offers still more; but the "merchant" raised
+them still higher and got the better of him.  Thus, defeated at
+every point, Tarras was compelled to abandon the idea of
+building.
+
+Tarras next announced that he intended laying out gardens and
+erecting fountains, and the work was to be commenced in the fall,
+but no one came to offer his services, and again he was obliged
+to forego his intentions.  Winter set in, and Tarras wanted some
+sable fur with which to line his great-coat, and he sent his man
+to procure it for him; but the servant returned without it,
+saying: "There are no sables to be had.  The 'merchant' has
+bought them all, paying a very high price for them."
+
+Tarras needed horses and sent a messenger to purchase them, but
+he returned with the same story as on former occasions--that none
+were to be found, the "merchant" having bought them all to carry
+water for an artificial pond he was constructing.  Tarras was at
+last compelled to suspend business, as he could not find any one
+willing to work for him.  They had all gone over to the
+"merchant's" side.  The only dealings the people had with Tarras
+were when they went to pay their taxes.  His money accumulated so
+fast that he could not find a place to put it, and his life
+became miserable.  He abandoned all idea of entering upon the new
+venture, and only thought of how to exist peaceably.  This he
+found it difficult to do, for, turn which way he would, fresh
+obstacles confronted him.  Even his cooks, coachmen, and all his
+other servants forsook him and joined the "merchant."  With all
+his wealth he had nothing to eat, and when he went to market he
+found the "merchant" had been there before him and had bought up
+all the provisions.  Still, the people continued to bring him
+money.
+
+Tarras at last became so indignant that he ordered the "merchant"
+out of his kingdom. He left, but settled just outside the
+boundary line, and continued his business with the same result as
+before, and Tarras was frequently forced to go without food for
+days.  It was rumored that the "merchant" wanted to buy even
+Tarras himself.  On hearing this the latter became very much
+alarmed and could not decide as to the best course to pursue.
+
+About this time his brother Simeon arrived in the kingdom, and
+said: "Help me, for I have been defeated and ruined by the Indian
+Viceroy."
+
+Tarras replied: "How can I help you, when I have had no food
+myself for two days?"
+
+ 
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The old devil, having finished with the second brother, went to
+Ivan the Fool.  This time he disguised himself as a General, the
+same as in the case of Simeon, and, appearing before Ivan, said:
+"Get an army together.  It is disgraceful for the ruler of a
+kingdom to be without an army.  You call your people to assemble,
+and I will form them into a fine large army."
+
+Ivan took the supposed General's advice, and said: "Well, you may
+form my people into an army, but you must also teach them to sing
+the songs I like."
+
+The old devil then went through Ivan's kingdom to secure recruits
+for the army, saying: "Come, shave your heads [the heads of
+recruits are always shaved in Russia] and I will give each of you
+a red hat and plenty of vodki" (whiskey).
+
+At this the fools only laughed, and said: "We can have all the
+vodki we want, for we distill it ourselves; and of hats, our
+little girls make all we want, of any color we please, and with
+handsome fringes."
+
+Thus was the devil foiled in securing recruits for his army; so
+he returned to Ivan and said: "Your fools will not volunteer to
+be soldiers. It will therefore be necessary to force them."
+
+"Very well," replied Ivan, "you may use force if you want to."
+
+The old devil then announced that all the fools must become
+soldiers, and those who refused, Ivan would punish with death.
+
+The fools went to the General; and said: "You tell us that Ivan
+will punish with death all those who refuse to become soldiers,
+but you have omitted to state what will be done with us soldiers.
+
+We have been told that we are only to be killed."
+
+"Yes, that is true," was the reply.
+
+The fools on hearing this became stubborn and refused to go.
+
+"Better kill us now if we cannot avoid death, but we will not
+become soldiers," they declared.
+
+"Oh! you fools," said the old devil, "soldiers may and may not be
+killed; but if you disobey Ivan's orders you will find certain
+death at his hands."
+
+The fools remained absorbed in thought for some time and finally
+went to Ivan to question him in regard to the matter.
+
+On arriving at his house they said: "A General came to us with an
+order from you that we were all to become soldiers, and if we
+refused you were to punish us with death.  Is it true?"
+
+Ivan began to laugh heartily on hearing this, and said: "Well,
+how I alone can punish you with death is something I cannot
+understand. If I was not a fool myself I would be able to explain
+it to you, but as it is I cannot."
+
+"Well, then, we will not go," they said.
+
+"Very well," replied Ivan, "you need not become soldiers unless
+you wish to."
+
+The old devil, seeing his schemes about to prove failures, went
+to the ruler of Tarakania and became his friend, saying: "Let us
+go and conquer Ivan's kingdom.  He has no money, but he has
+plenty of cattle, provisions, and various other things that would
+be useful to us."
+
+The Tarakanian ruler gathered his large army together, and
+equipping it with cannons and rifles, crossed the boundary line
+into Ivan's kingdom.  The people went to Ivan and said: "The
+ruler of Tarakania is here with a large army to fight us."
+
+"Let them come," replied Ivan.
+
+The Tarakanian ruler, after crossing the line into Ivan's
+kingdom, looked in vain for soldiers to fight against; and
+waiting some time and none appearing, he sent his own warriors to
+attack the villages.
+
+They soon reached the first village, which they began to plunder.
+
+The fools of both sexes looked calmly on, offering not the least
+resistance when their cattle and provisions were being taken from
+them.  On the contrary, they invited the soldiers to come and
+live with them, saying: "If you, dear friends, find it is
+difficult to earn a living in your own land, come and live with
+us, where everything is plentiful."
+
+The soldiers decided to remain, finding the people happy and
+prosperous, with enough surplus food to supply many of their
+neighbors.  They were surprised at the cordial greetings which
+they everywhere received, and, returning to the ruler of
+Tarakania, they said: "We cannot fight with these people--take us
+to another place.  We would much prefer the dangers of actual
+warfare to this unsoldierly method of subduing the village."
+
+The Tarakanian ruler, becoming enraged, ordered the soldiers to
+destroy the whole kingdom, plunder the villages, burn the houses
+and provisions, and slaughter the cattle.
+
+"Should you disobey my orders," said he,  "I will have every one
+of you executed."
+
+The soldiers, becoming frightened, started to do as they were
+ordered, but the fools wept bitterly, offering no resistance,
+men, women, and children all joining in the general
+lamentation.
+
+"Why do you treat us so cruelly?" they cried to the invading
+soldiers.  "Why do you wish to destroy everything we have?  If
+you have more need of these things than we have, why not take
+them with you and leave us in peace?"
+
+The soldiers, becoming saddened with remorse, refused further to
+pursue their path of destruction--the entire army scattering in
+many directions.  
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The old devil, failing to ruin Ivan's kingdom with soldiers,
+transformed himself into a nobleman, dressed exquisitely, and
+became one of Ivan's subjects, with the intention of compassing
+the downfall of his kingdom--as he had done with that of Tarras.
+
+The "nobleman" said to Ivan: "I desire to teach you wisdom and to
+render you other service.  I will build you a palace and
+factories."
+
+"Very well," said Ivan; "you may live with us."
+
+The next day the "nobleman" appeared on the Square with a sack of
+gold in his hand and a plan for building a house, saying to the
+people: "You are living like pigs, and I am going to teach you
+how to live decently.  You are to build a house for me according
+to this plan.  I will superintend the work myself, and will pay
+you for your services in gold," showing them at the same time the
+contents of his sack.
+
+The fools were amused.  They had never before seen any money. 
+Their business was conducted entirely by exchange of farm
+products or by hiring themselves out to work by the day in return
+for whatever they most needed.  They therefore glanced at the
+gold pieces with amazement, and said, "What nice toys they would
+be to play with!"  In return for the gold they gave their
+services and brought the "nobleman" the produce of their farms.
+
+The old devil was overjoyed as he thought, "Now my enterprise is
+on a fair road and I will be able to ruin the Fool--as I did his
+brothers."
+
+The fools obtained sufficient gold to distribute among the entire
+community, the women and young girls of the village wearing much
+of it as ornaments, while to the children they gave some pieces
+to play with on the streets.
+
+When they had secured all they wanted they stopped working and
+the "noblemen" did not get his house more than half finished.  He
+had neither provisions nor cattle for the year, and ordered the
+people to bring him both.  He directed them also to go on with
+the building of the palace and factories.  He promised to pay
+them liberally in gold for everything they did.  No one responded
+to his call--only once in awhile a little boy or girl would call
+to exchange eggs for his gold.
+
+Thus was the "nobleman" deserted, and, having nothing to eat, he
+went to the village to procure some provisions for his dinner. 
+He went to one house and offered gold in return for a chicken,
+but was refused, the owner saying: "We have enough of that
+already and do not want any more."
+
+He next went to a fish-woman to buy some herring, when she, too,
+refused to accept his gold in return for fish, saying: "I do not
+wish it, my dear man; I have no children to whom I can give it to
+play with.  I have three pieces which I keep as curiosities
+only."
+
+He then went to a peasant to buy bread, but he also refused to
+accept the gold.  "I have no use for it," said he, "unless you
+wish to give it for Christ's sake; then it will be a different
+matter, and I will tell my baba [old woman] to cut a piece of
+bread for you."
+
+The old devil was so angry that he ran away from the peasant,
+spitting and cursing as he went.
+
+Not only did the offer to accept in the name of Christ anger him,
+but the very mention of the name was like the thrust of a knife
+in his throat.
+
+The old devil did not succeed in getting any bread, and in his
+efforts to secure other articles of food he met with the same
+failure.  The people had all the gold they wanted and what pieces
+they had they regarded as curiosities.  They said to the old
+devil: "If you bring us something else in exchange for food, or
+come to ask for Christ's sake, we will give you all you want."
+
+But the old devil had nothing but gold, and was too lazy to work;
+and being unable to accept anything for Christ's sake, he was
+greatly enraged.
+
+"What else do you want?" he said.  "I will give you gold with
+which you can buy everything you want, and you need labor no
+longer."
+
+But the fools would not accept his gold, nor listen to him.  Thus
+the old devil was obliged to go to sleep hungry.
+
+Tidings of this condition of affairs soon reached the ears of
+Ivan.  The people went to him and said: "What shell we do?  This
+nobleman appeared among us; he is well dressed; he wishes to eat
+and drink of the best, but is unwilling to work, and does not beg
+for food for Christ's sake.  He only offers every one gold
+pieces.  At first we gave him everything he wanted, taking the
+gold pieces in exchange just as curiosities; but now we have
+enough of them and refuse to accept any more from him.  What
+shallwe do with him? he may die of hunger!"
+
+Ivan heard all they had to say, and told them to employ him as a
+shepherd, taking turns in doing so.
+
+The old devil saw no other way out of the difficulty and was
+obliged to submit.
+
+It soon came the old devil's turn to go to Ivan's house.  He went
+there to dinner and found Ivan's dumb sister preparing the meal.
+She was often cheated by the lazy people, who while they did not
+work, yet ate up all the gruel.  But she learned to know the lazy
+people from the condition of their hands.  Those with great welts
+on their hands she invited first to the table, and those having
+smooth white hands had to take what was left.
+
+The old devil took a seat at the table, but the dumb girl, taking
+his hands, looked at them, and seeing them white and clean, and
+with long nails, swore at him and put him from the table.
+
+Ivan's wife said to the old devil: "You must excuse my
+sister-in-law; she will not allow any one to sit at the table
+whose hands have not been hardened by toil, so you will have to
+wait until the dinner is over and then you can have what is left.
+
+With it you must be satisfied."
+
+The old devil was very much offended that he was made to eat with
+"pigs," as he expressed it, and complained to Ivan, saying: "The
+foolish law you have in your kingdom, that all persons must work,
+is surely the invention of fools.  People who work for a living
+are not always forced to labor with their hands.  Do you think
+wise men labor so?"
+
+Ivan replied: "Well, what do fools know about it?  We all work
+with our hands."
+
+"And for that reason you are fools," replied the devil.  "I can
+teach you how to use your brains, and you will find such labor
+more beneficial."
+
+Ivan was surprised at hearing this, and said:
+
+"Well, it is perhaps not without good reason that we are called
+fools."
+
+"It is not so easy to work with the brain," the old devil said. 
+"You will not give me anything to eat because my hands have not
+the appearance of being toil-hardened, but you must understand
+that it is much harder to do brain-work, and sometimes the head
+feels like bursting with the effort it is forced to make."
+
+"Then why do you not select some light work that you can perform
+with your hands?" Ivan asked.
+
+The devil said: "I torment myself with brain-work because I have
+pity for you fools, for, if I did not torture myself, people like
+you would remain fools for all eternity.  I have exercised my
+brain a great deal during my life, and now I am able to teach
+you."
+
+Ivan was greatly surprised and said: "Very well; teach us, so
+that when our hands are tired we can use our heads to replace
+them."
+
+The devil promised to instruct the people, and Ivan announced the
+fact throughout his kingdom.
+
+The devil was willing to teach all those who came to him how to
+use the head instead of the hands, so as to produce more with the
+former than with the latter.
+
+In Ivan's kingdom there was a high tower, which was reached by a
+long, narrow ladder leading up to the balcony, and Ivan told the
+old devil that from the top of the tower every one could see him.
+
+So the old devil went up to the balcony and addressed the people.
+
+The fools came in great crowds to hear what the old devil had to
+say, thinking that he really meant to tell them how to work with
+the head. But the old devil only told them in words what to do,
+and did not give them any practical instruction.  He said that
+men working only with their hands could not make a living.  The
+fools did not understand what he said to them and looked at him
+in amazement, and then departed for their daily work.
+
+The old devil addressed them for two days from the balcony, and
+at the end of that time, feeling hungry, he asked the people to
+bring him some bread.  But they only laughed at him and told him
+if he could work better with his head than with his hands he
+could also find bread for himself.  He addressed the people for
+yet another day, and they went to hear him from curiosity, but
+soon left him to return to their work.
+
+Ivan asked, "Well, did the nobleman work with his head?"
+
+"Not yet," they said; "so far he has only talked."
+
+One day, while the old devil was standing on the balcony, he
+became weak, and, falling down, hurt his head against a pole.
+
+Seeing this, one of the fools ran to Ivan's wife and said, "The
+gentleman has at last commenced to work with his head."
+
+She ran to the field to tell Ivan, who was much surprised, and
+said, "Let us go and see him."
+
+He turned his horses' heads in the direction of the tower, where
+the old devil remained weak from hunger and was still suspended
+from the pole, with his body swaying back and forth and his head
+striking the lower part of the pole each time it came in contact
+with it.  While Ivan was looking, the old devil started down the
+steps head-first--as they supposed, to count them.
+
+"Well," said Ivan, "he told the truth after all--that sometimes
+from this kind of work the head bursts.  This is far worse than
+welts on the hands."
+
+The old devil fell to the ground head-foremost.  Ivan approached
+him, but at that instant the ground opened and the devil
+disappeared, leaving only a hole to show where he had gone.
+
+Ivan scratched his head and said: "See here; such nastiness! 
+This is yet another devil.  He  looks like the father of the
+little ones."
+
+Ivan still lives, and people flock to his kingdom.  His brothers
+come to him and he feeds them.
+
+To every one who comes to him and says, "Give us food," he
+replies: "Very well; you are  welcome.  We have plenty of
+everything."
+
+There is only one unchangeable custom observed in Ivan's kingdom:
+The man with toil-hardened hands is always given a seat at the
+table, while the possessor of soft white hands must be contented
+with what is left.
+
+
+
+ A LOST OPPORTUNITY.
+
+----------
+
+"Then came Peter to Him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother
+sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" . . . . 
+"So likewise shall My heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye
+from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their
+trespasses."--ST. MATTHEW xviii., 21-35.
+
+
+In a certain village there lived a peasant by the name of Ivan
+Scherbakoff.  He was prosperous, strong, and vigorous, and was
+considered the hardest worker in the whole village. He had three
+sons, who supported themselves by their own labor.  The eldest
+was married, the second about to be married, and the youngest
+took care of the horses and occasionally attended to the
+plowing.
+
+The peasant's wife, Ivanovna, was intelligent and industrious,
+while her daughter-in-law was a simple, quiet soul, but a hard
+worker.
+
+There was only one idle person in the household, and that was
+Ivan's father, a very old man who for seven years had suffered
+from asthma, and who spent the greater part of his time lying on
+the brick oven.
+
+Ivan had plenty of everything--three horses, with one colt, a cow
+with calf, and fifteen sheep.  The women made the men's clothes,
+and in addition to performing all the necessary household labor,
+also worked in the field; while the men's industry was confined
+altogether to the farm.
+
+What was left of the previous year's supply of provisions was
+ample for their needs, and they sold a quantity of oats
+sufficient to pay their taxes and other expenses.
+
+Thus life went smoothly for Ivan.
+
+The peasant's next-door neighbor was a son of Gordey Ivanoff,
+called "Gavryl the Lame."  It once happened that Ivan had a
+quarrel with him; but while old man Gordey was yet alive, and
+Ivan's father was the head of the household, the two peasants
+lived as good neighbors should.  If the women of one house
+required the use of a sieve or pail, they borrowed it from the
+inmates of the other house.  The same condition of affairs
+existed between the men.  They lived more like one family, the
+one dividing his possessions with the other, and perfect harmony
+reigned between the two families.
+
+If a stray calf or cow invaded the garden of one of the farmers,
+the other willingly drove it away, saying: "Be careful, neighbor,
+that your stock does not again stray into my garden; we should
+put a fence up."  In the same way they had no secrets from each
+other.  The doors of their houses and barns had neither bolts nor
+locks, so sure were they of each other's honesty.  Not a shadow
+of suspicion darkened their daily intercourse.
+
+Thus lived the old people.
+
+In time the younger members of the two households started
+farming.  It soon became apparent that they would not get along
+as peacefully as the old people had done, for they began
+quarrelling without the slightest provocation.
+
+A hen belonging to Ivan's daughter-in-law commenced laying eggs,
+which the young woman collected each morning, intending to keep
+them for the Easter holidays.  She made daily visits to the barn,
+where, under an old wagon, she was sure to find the precious egg.
+
+One day the children frightened the hen and she flew over their
+neighbor's fence and laid her egg in their garden.
+
+Ivan's daughter-in-law heard the hen cackling, but said: "I am
+very busy just at present, for this is the eve of a holy day, and
+I must clean and arrange this room.  I will go for the egg later
+on."
+
+When evening came, and she had finished her task, she went to the
+barn, and as usual looked under the old wagon, expecting to find
+an egg.  But, alas! no egg was visible in the accustomed place.
+
+Greatly disappointed, she returned to the house and inquired of
+her mother-in-law and the other members of the family if they had
+taken it.  "No," they said, "we know nothing of it."
+
+Taraska, the youngest brother-in-law, coming in soon after, she
+also inquired of him if he knew anything about the missing egg. 
+"Yes," he replied; "your pretty, crested hen laid her egg in our
+neighbors' garden, and after she had finished cackling she flew
+back again over the fence."
+
+The young woman, greatly surprised on hearing this, turned and
+looked long and seriously at the hen, which was sitting with
+closed eyes beside the rooster in the chimney-corner.  She asked
+the hen where it laid the egg.  At the sound of her voice it
+simply opened and closed its eyes, but could make no answer.
+
+She then went to the neighbors' house, where she was met by an
+old woman, who said: "What do you want, young woman?"
+
+Ivan's daughter-in-law replied: "You see, babushka [grandmother],
+my hen flew into your yard this morning.  Did she not lay an egg
+there?"
+
+"We did not see any," the old woman replied; "we have our own
+hens--God be praised!--and they have been laying for this long
+time.  We hunt only for the eggs our own hens lay, and have no
+use for the eggs other people's hens lay.  Another thing I want
+to tell you, young woman: we do not go into other people's yards
+to look for eggs."
+
+Now this speech greatly angered the young woman, and she replied
+in the same spirit in which she had been spoken to, only using
+much stronger language and speaking at greater length.
+
+The neighbor replied in the same angry manner, and finally the
+women began to abuse each other and call vile names.  It happened
+that old Ivan's wife, on her way to the well for water, heard the
+dispute, and joined the others, taking her daughter-in-law's
+part.
+
+Gavryl's housekeeper, hearing the noise, could not resist the
+temptation to join the rest and to make her voice heard.  As soon
+as she appeared on the scene, she, too, began to abuse her
+neighbor, reminding her of many disagreeable things which had
+happened (and many which had not happened) between them.  She
+became so infuriated during her denunciations that she lost all
+control of herself, and ran around like some mad creature.
+
+Then all the women began to shout at the same time, each trying
+to say two words to another's one, and using the vilest language
+in the quarreller's vocabulary.
+
+"You are such and such," shouted one of the women.  "You are a
+thief, a schlukha [a mean, dirty, low creature]; your
+father-in-law is even now starving, and you have no shame.  You
+beggar, you borrowed my sieve and broke it.  You made a large
+hole in it, and did not buy me another."
+
+"You have our scale-beam," cried another woman, "and must give it
+back to me;" whereupon she seized the scale-beam and tried to
+remove it from the shoulders of Ivan's wife.
+
+In the melee which followed they upset the pails of water.  They
+tore the covering from each other's head, and a general fight
+ensued.
+
+Gavryl's wife had by this time joined in the fracas, and he,
+crossing the field and seeing the trouble, came to her rescue.
+
+Ivan and his son, seeing that their womenfolk were being badly
+used, jumped into the midst of the fray, and a fearful fight
+followed.
+
+Ivan was the most powerful peasant in all the country round, and
+it did not take him long to disperse the crowd, for they flew in
+all directions.  During the progress of the fight Ivan tore out a
+large quantity of Gavryl's beard.
+
+By this time a large crowd of peasants had collected, and it was
+with the greatest difficulty that they persuaded the two families
+to stop quarrelling.
+
+This was the beginning.
+
+Gavryl took the portion of his beard which Ivan had torn out,
+and, wrapping it in a paper, went to the volostnoye (moujiks'
+court) and entered a complaint against Ivan.
+
+Holding up the hair, he said, "I did not grow this for that bear
+Ivan to tear out!"
+
+Gavryl's wife went round among the neighbors, telling them that
+they must not repeat what she told them, but that she and her
+husband were going to get the best of Ivan, and that he was to be
+sent to Siberia.
+
+And so the quarrelling went on.
+
+The poor old grandfather, sick with asthma and lying on the brick
+oven all the time, tried from the first to dissuade them from
+quarrelling, and begged of them to live in peace; but they would
+not listen to his good advice.  He said to them: "You children
+are making a great fuss and much trouble about nothing.  I beg of
+you to stop and think of what a little thing has caused all this
+trouble.  It has arisen from only one egg.  If our neighbors'
+children picked it up, it is all right.  God bless them!  One egg
+is of but little value, and without it God will supply sufficient
+for all our needs."
+
+Ivan's daughter-in-law here interposed and said, "But they called
+us vile names."
+
+The old grandfather again spoke, saying: "Well, even if they did
+call you bad names, it would have been better to return good for
+evil, and by your example show them how to speak better.  Such
+conduct on your part would have been best for all concerned."  He
+continued: "Well, you had a fight, you wicked people.  Such
+things sometimes happen, but it would be better if you went
+afterward and asked forgiveness and buried your grievances out of
+sight.  Scatter them to the four winds of heaven, for if you do
+not do so it will be the worse for you in the end."
+
+The younger members of the family, still obstinate, refused to
+profit by the old man's advice, and declared he was not right,
+and that he only liked to grumble in his old-fashioned way.
+
+Ivan refused to go to his neighbor, as the grandfather wished,
+saying: "I did not tear out Gavryl's beard.  He did it himself,
+and his son tore my shirt and trousers into shreds."
+
+Ivan entered suit against Gavryl.  He first went to the village
+justice, and not getting satisfaction from him he carried his
+case to the village court.
+
+While the neighbors were wrangling over the affair, each suing
+the other, it happened that a perch-bolt from Gavryl's wagon was
+lost; and the women of Gavryl's household accused Ivan's son of
+stealing it.
+
+They said: "We saw him in the night-time pass by our window, on
+his way to where the wagon was standing."  "And my kumushka
+[sponsor]," said one of them, "told me that Ivan's son had
+offered it for sale at the kabak [tavern]."
+
+This accusation caused them again to go into court for a
+settlement of their grievances.
+
+While the heads of the families were trying to have their
+troubles settled in court, their home quarrels were constant, and
+frequently resulted in hand-to-hand encounters.  Even the little
+children followed the example of their elders and quarrelled
+incessantly.
+
+The women, when they met on the riverbank to do the family
+washing, instead of attending to their work passed the time in
+abusing each other, and not infrequently they came to blows.
+
+At first the male members of the families were content with
+accusing each other of various crimes, such as stealing and like
+meannesses.  But the trouble in this mild form did not last long.
+
+They soon resorted to other measures.  They began to appropriate
+one another's things without asking permission, while various
+articles disappeared from both houses and could not be found. 
+This was done out of revenge.
+
+This example being set by the men, the women and children also
+followed, and life soon became a burden to all who took part in
+the strife.
+
+Ivan Scherbakoff and "Gavryl the Lame" at last laid their trouble
+before the mir (village meeting), in addition to having been in
+court and calling on the justice of the peace.  Both of the
+latter had grown tired of them and their incessant wrangling. 
+One time Gavryl would succeed in having Ivan fined, and if he was
+not able to pay it he would be locked up in the cold dreary
+prison for days.  Then it would be Ivan's turn to get Gavryl
+punished in like manner, and the greater the injury the one could
+do the other the more delight he took in it.
+
+The success of either in having the other punished only served to
+increase their rage against each other, until they were like mad
+dogs in their warfare.
+
+If anything went wrong with one of them he immediately accused
+his adversary of conspiring to ruin him, and sought revenge
+without stopping to inquire into the rights of the case.
+
+When the peasants went into court, and had each other fined and
+imprisoned, it did not soften their hearts in the least.  They
+would only taunt one another on such occasions, saying: "Never
+mind; I will repay you for all this."
+
+This state of affairs lasted for six years.
+
+Ivan's father, the sick old man, constantly repeated his good
+advice.  He would try to arouse their conscience by saying: "What
+are you doing, my children?  Can you not throw off all these
+troubles, pay more attention to your business, and suppress your
+anger against your neighbors?  There is no use in your continuing
+to live in this way, for the more enraged you become against each
+other the worse it is for you."
+
+Again was the wise advice of the old man rejected.
+
+At the beginning of the seventh year of the existence of the feud
+it happened that a daughter-in-law of Ivan's was present at a
+marriage.  At the wedding feast she openly accused Gavryl of
+stealing a horse.  Gavryl was intoxicated at the time and was in
+no mood to stand the insult, so in retaliation he struck the
+woman a terrific blow, which confined her to her bed for more
+than a week.  The woman being in delicate health, the worst
+results were feared.
+
+Ivan, glad of a fresh opportunity to harass his neighbor, lodged
+a formal complaint before the district-attorney, hoping to rid
+himself forever of Gavryl by having him sent to Siberia.
+
+On examining the complaint the district-attorney would not
+consider it, as by that time the injured woman was walking about
+and as well as ever.
+
+Thus again Ivan was disappointed in obtaining his revenge, and,
+not being satisfied with the district-attorney's decision, had
+the case transferred to the court, where he used all possible
+means to push his suit.  To secure the favor of the starshina
+(village mayor) he made him a present of half a gallon of sweet
+vodki; and to the mayor's pisar (secretary) also he gave
+presents.  By this means he succeeded in securing a verdict
+against Gavryl.  The sentence was that Gavryl was to receive
+twenty lashes on his bare back, and the punishment was to be
+administered in the yard which surrounded the court-house.
+
+When Ivan heard the sentence read he looked triumphantly at
+Gavryl to see what effect it would produce on him.  Gavryl turned
+very white on hearing that he was to be treated with such
+indignity, and turning his back on the assembly left the room
+without uttering a word.
+
+Ivan followed him out, and as he reached his horse he heard
+Gavryl saying: "Very well; my spine will burn from the lashes,
+but something will burn with greater fierceness in Ivan's
+household before long."
+
+Ivan, on hearing these words, instantly returned to the court,
+and going up to the judges said: "Oh! just judges, he threatens
+to burn my house and all it contains."
+
+A messenger was immediately sent in search of Gavryl, who was
+soon found and again brought into the presence of the judges.
+
+"Is it true," they asked, "that you said you would burn Ivan's
+house and all it contained?"
+
+Gavryl replied: "I did not say anything of the kind.  You may
+give me as many lashes as you please--that is, if you have the
+power to do so.  It seems to me that I alone have to suffer for
+the truth, while he," pointing to Ivan, "is allowed to do and say
+what he pleases."  Gavryl wished to say something more, but his
+lips trembled, and the words refused to come; so in silence he
+turned his face toward the wall.
+
+The sight of so much suffering moved even the judges to pity,
+and, becoming alarmed at Gavryl's continued silence, they said,
+"He may do both his neighbor and himself some frightful injury."
+
+"See here, my brothers," said one feeble old judge, looking at
+Ivan and Gavryl as he spoke, "I think you had better try to
+arrange this matter peaceably.  You, brother Gavryl, did wrong to
+strike a woman who was in delicate health.  It was a lucky thing
+for you that God had mercy on you and that the woman did not die,
+for if she had I know not what dire misfortune might have
+overtaken you!  It will not do either of you any good to go on
+living as you are at present.  Go, Gavryl, and make friends with
+Ivan; I am sure he will forgive you, and we will set aside the
+verdict just given."
+
+The secretary on hearing this said: "It is impossible to do this
+on the present case.  According to Article 117 this matter has
+gone too far to be settled peaceably now, as the verdict has been
+rendered and must be enforced."
+
+But the judges would not listen to the secretary, saying to him:
+"You talk altogether too much.  You must remember that the first
+thing is to fulfill God's command to 'Love thy neighbor as
+thyself,' and all will be well with you."
+
+Thus with kind words the judges tried to reconcile the two
+peasants.  Their words fell on stony ground, however, for Gavryl
+would not listen to them.
+
+"I am fifty years old," said Gavryl, "and have a son married, and
+never from my birth has the lash been applied to my back; but now
+this bear Ivan has secured a verdict against me which condemns me
+to receive twenty lashes, and I am forced to bow to this decision
+and suffer the shame of a public beating.  Well, he will have
+cause to remember this."
+
+At this Gavryl's voice trembled and he stopped speaking, and
+turning his back on the judges took his departure.
+
+It was about ten versts' distance from the court to the homes of
+the neighbors, and this Ivan travelled late.  The women had
+already gone out for the cattle.  He unharnessed his horse and
+put everything in its place, and then went into the izba (room),
+but found no one there.
+
+The men had not yet returned from their work in the field and the
+women had gone to look for the cattle, so that all about the
+place was quiet.  Going into the room, Ivan seated himself on a
+wooden bench and soon became lost in thought.  He remembered how,
+when Gavryl first heard the sentence which had been passed upon
+him, he grew very pale, and turned his face to the wall, all the
+while remaining silent.
+
+Ivan's heart ached when he thought of the disgrace which he had
+been the means of bring- ing upon Gavryl, and he wondered how he
+would feel if the same sentence had been passed upon him.  His
+thoughts were interrupted by the coughing of his father, who was
+lying on the oven.
+
+The old man, on seeing Ivan, came down off the oven, and slowly
+approaching his son seated himself on the bench beside him,
+looking at him as though ashamed.  He continued to cough as he
+leaned on the table and said, "Well, did they sentence him?"
+
+"Yes, they sentenced him to receive twenty lashes," replied Ivan.
+
+On hearing this the old man sorrowfully shook his head, and said:
+"This is very bad, Ivan, and what is the meaning of it all?  It
+is indeed very bad, but not so bad for Gavryl as for yourself. 
+Well, suppose his sentence IS carried out, and he gets the twenty
+lashes, what will it benefit you?"
+
+"He will not again strike a woman," Ivan replied.
+
+"What is it he will not do?  He does not do anything worse than
+what you are constantly doing!"
+
+This conversation enraged Ivan, and he shouted: "Well, what did
+he do?  He beat a woman nearly to death, and even now he
+threatens to burn my house!  Must I bow to him for all this?"
+
+The old man sighed deeply as he said: "You, Ivan, are strong and
+free to go wherever you please, while I have been lying for years
+on the oven.  You think that you know everything and that I do
+not know anything.  No! you are still a child, and as such you
+cannot see that a kind of madness controls your actions and
+blinds your sight.  The sins of others are ever before you, while
+you resolutely keep your own behind your back.  I know that what
+Gavryl did was wrong, but if he alone should do wrong there would
+be no evil in the world.  Do you think that all the evil in the
+world is the work of one man alone?  No! it requires two persons
+to work much evil in the world.  You see only the bad in Gavryl's
+character, but you are blind to the evil that is in your own
+nature.  If he alone were bad and you good, then there would be
+no wrong."
+
+The old man, after a pause, continued: "Who tore Gavryl's beard? 
+Who destroyed his heaps of rye?  Who dragged him into court?--and
+yet you try to put all the blame on his shoulders. You are
+behaving very badly yourself, and for that reason you are wrong. 
+I did not act in such a manner, and certainly I never taught you
+to do so.  I lived in peace with Gavryl's father all the time we
+were neighbors.  We were always the best of friends.  If he was
+without flour his wife would come to me and say, 'Diadia Frol
+[Grandfather], we need flour.' I would then say: 'My good woman,
+go to the warehouse and take as much as you want.'  If he had no
+one to care for his horses I would say, 'Go, Ivanushka
+[diminutive of Ivan], and help him to care for them.'  If I
+required anything I would go to him and say, 'Grandfather Gordey,
+I need this or that,' and he would always reply, 'Take just
+whatever you want.'  By this means we passed an easy and peaceful
+life. But what is your life compared with it?  As the soldiers
+fought at Plevna, so are you and Gavryl fighting all the time,
+only that your battles are far more disgraceful than that fought
+at Plevna."
+
+The old man went on: "And you call this living! and what a sin it
+all is!  You are a peasant, and the head of the house; therefore,
+the responsibility of the trouble rests with you.  What an
+example you set your wife and children by constantly quarrelling
+with your neighbor!  Only a short time since your little boy,
+Taraska, was cursing his aunt Arina, and his mother only laughed
+at it, saying, 'What a bright child he is!'  Is that right?  You
+are to blame for all this.  You should think of the salvation of
+your soul.  Is that the way to do it?  You say one unkind word to
+me and I will reply with two.  You will give me one slap in the
+face, and I will retaliate with two slaps.  No, my son; Christ
+did not teach us foolish people to act in such a way.  If any one
+should say an unkind word to you it is better not to answer at
+all; but if you do reply do it kindly, and his conscience will
+accuse him, and he will regret his unkindness to you.  This is
+the way Christ taught us to live.  He tells us that if a person
+smite us on the one cheek we should offer unto him the other. 
+That is Christ's command to us, and we should follow it.  You
+should therefore subdue your pride.  Am I not right?"
+
+Ivan remained silent, but his father's words had sunk deep into
+his heart.
+
+The old man coughed and continued: "Do you think Christ thought
+us wicked?  Did he not die that we might be saved?  Now you think
+only of this earthly life.  Are you better or worse for thinking
+alone of it?  Are you better or worse for having begun that
+Plevna battle?  Think of your expense at court and the time lost
+in going back and forth, and what have you gained?  Your sons
+have reached manhood, and are able now to work for you. You are
+therefore at liberty to enjoy life and be happy.  With the
+assistance of your children you could reach a high state of
+prosperity.  But now your property instead of increasing is
+gradually growing less, and why?  It is the result of your pride. 
+When it becomes necessary for you and your boys to go to the
+field to work, your enemy instead summons you to appear at court
+or before some kind of judicial person. If you do not plow at the
+proper time and sow at the proper time mother earth will not
+yield up her products, and you and your children will be left
+destitute.  Why did your oats fail this year?  When did you sow
+them?  Were you not quarrelling with your neighbor instead of
+attending to your work?  You have just now returned from the
+town, where you have been the means of having your neighbor
+humiliated. You have succeeded in getting him sentenced, but in
+the end the punishment will fall on your own shoulders.  Oh! my
+child, it would be better for you to attend to your work on the
+farm and train your boys to become good farmers and honest men. 
+If any one offend you forgive him for Christ's sake, and then
+prosperity will smile on your work and a light and happy feeling
+will fill your heart."
+
+Ivan still remained silent.
+
+The old father in a pleading voice continued: "Take an old man's
+advice.  Go and harness your horse, drive back to the court, and
+withdraw all these complaints against your neighbor.  To-morrow
+go to him, offer to make peace in Christ's name, and invite him
+to your house.  It will be a holy day (the birth of the Virgin
+Mary).  Get out the samovar and have some vodki, and over both
+forgive and forget each other's sins, promising not to transgress
+in the future, and advise your women and children to do the
+same."
+
+Ivan heaved a deep sigh but felt easier in his heart, as he
+thought: "The old man speaks the truth;" yet he was in doubt as
+to how he would put his father's advice into practice.
+
+The old man, surmising his uncertainty, said to Ivan: "Go,
+Ivanushka; do not delay.  Extinguish the fire in the beginning,
+before it grows large, for then it may be impossible."
+
+Ivan's father wished to say more to him, but was prevented by the
+arrival of the women, who came into the room chattering like so
+many magpies.  They had already heard of Gavryl's sentence, and
+of how he threatened to set fire to Ivan's house.  They found out
+all about it, and in telling it to their neighbors added their
+own versions of the story, with the usual exaggeration.  Meeting
+in the pasture-ground, they proceeded to quarrel with Gavryl's
+women.  They related how the latter's daughter-in-law had
+threatened to secure the influence of the manager of a certain
+noble's estate in behalf of his friend Gavryl; also that the
+school-teacher was writing a petition to the Czar himself against
+Ivan, explaining in detail his theft of the perchbolt and partial
+destruction of Gavryl's garden--declaring that half of Ivan's
+land was to be given to them.
+
+Ivan listened calmly to their stories, but his anger was soon
+aroused once more, when he abandoned his intention of making
+peace with Gavryl.
+
+As Ivan was always busy about the household, he did not stop to
+speak to the wrangling women, but immediately left the room,
+directing his steps toward the barn.  Before getting through with
+his work the sun had set and the boys had returned from their
+plowing.  Ivan met them and asked about their work, helping them
+to put things in order and leaving the broken horse-collar aside
+to be repaired.  He intended to perform some other duties, but it
+became too dark and he was obliged to leave them till the next
+day.  He fed the cattle, however, and opened the gate that
+Taraska might take his horses to pasture for the night, after
+which he closed it again and went into the house for his supper.
+
+By this time he had forgotten all about Gavryl and what his
+father had said to him.  Yet, just as he touched the door-knob,
+he heard sounds of quarrelling proceeding from his neighbor's
+house.
+
+"What do I want with that devil?" shouted Gavryl to some one. 
+"He deserves to be killed!"
+
+Ivan stopped and listened for a moment, when he shook his head
+threateningly and entered the room.  When he came in, the
+apartment was already lighted.  His daughter-in-law was working
+with her loom, while the old woman was preparing the supper.  The
+eldest son was twining strings for his lapti (peasant's shoes
+made of strips of bark from the linden-tree).  The other son was
+sitting by the table reading a book.  The room presented a
+pleasant appearance, everything being in order and the inmates
+apparently gay and happy--the only dark shadow being that cast
+over the household by Ivan's trouble with his neighbor.
+
+Ivan came in very cross, and, angrily throwing aside a cat which
+lay sleeping on the bench, cursed the women for having misplaced
+a pail.  He looked very sad and serious, and, seating himself in
+a corner of the room, proceeded to repair the horse-collar.  He
+could not forget Gavryl, however--the threatening words he had
+used in the court-room and those which Ivan had just heard.
+
+Presently Taraska came in, and after having his supper, put on
+his sheepskin coat, and, taking some bread with him, returned to
+watch over his horses for the night.  His eldest brother wished
+to accompany him, but Ivan himself arose and went with him as far
+as the porch.  The night was dark and cloudy and a strong wind
+was blowing, which produced a peculiar whistling sound that was
+most unpleasant to the ear.  Ivan helped his son to mount his
+horse, which, followed by a colt, started off on a gallop.
+
+Ivan stood for a few moments looking around him and listening to
+the clatter of the horse's hoofs as Taraska rode down the village
+street. He heard him meet other boys on horseback, who rode quite
+as well as Taraska, and soon all were lost in the darkness.
+
+Ivan remained standing by the gate in a gloomy mood, as he was
+unable to banish from his mind the harassing thoughts of Gavryl,
+which the latter's menacing words had inspired: "Something will
+burn with greater fierceness in Ivan's household before long."
+
+"He is so desperate," thought Ivan, "that he may set fire to my
+house regardless of the danger to his own.  At present everything
+is dry, and as the wind is so high he may sneak from the back of
+his own building, start a fire, and get away unseen by any of us.
+
+He may burn and steal without being found out, and thus go
+unpunished.  I wish I could catch him."
+
+This thought so worried Ivan that he decided not to return to his
+house, but went out and stood on the street-corner.
+
+"I guess," thought Ivan to himself, "I will take a walk around
+the premises and examine everything carefully, for who knows what
+he may be tempted to do?"
+
+Ivan moved very cautiously round to the back of his buildings,
+not making the slightest noise, and scarcely daring to breathe. 
+Just as he reached a corner of the house he looked toward the
+fence, and it seemed to him that he saw something moving, and
+that it was slowly creeping toward the corner of the house
+opposite to where he was standing.  He stepped back quickly and
+hid himself in the shadow of the building.  Ivan stood and
+listened, but all was quiet.  Not a sound could be heard but the
+moaning of the wind through the branches of the trees, and the
+rustling of the leaves as it caught them up and whirled them in
+all directions.  So dense was the darkness that it was at first
+impossible for Ivan to see more than a few feet beyond where he
+stood.
+
+After a time, however, his sight becoming accustomed to the
+gloom, he was enabled to see for a considerable distance.  The
+plow and his other farming implements stood just where he had
+placed them.  He could see also the opposite corner of the house.
+
+He looked in every direction, but no one was in sight, and he
+thought to himself that his imagination must have played him some
+trick, leading him to believe that some one was moving when there
+really was no one there.
+
+Still, Ivan was not satisfied, and decided to make a further
+examination of the premises.  As on the previous occasion, he
+moved so very cautiously that he could not hear even the sound of
+his own footsteps.  He had taken the precaution to remove his
+shoes, that he might step the more noiselessly.  When he reached
+the corner of the barn it again seemed to him that he saw
+something moving, this time near the plow; but it quickly
+disappeared.  By this time Ivan's heart was beating very fast,
+and he was standing in a listening attitude when a sudden flash
+of light illumined the spot, and he could distinctly see the
+figure of a man seated on his haunches with his back turned
+toward him, and in the act of lighting a bunch of straw which he
+held in his hand!  Ivan's heart began to beat yet faster, and he
+became terribly excited, walking up and down with rapid strides,
+but without making a noise.
+
+Ivan said: "Well, now, he cannot get away, for he will be caught
+in the very act."
+
+Ivan had taken a few more steps when suddenly a bright light
+flamed up, but not in the same spot in which he had seen the
+figure of the man sitting.  Gavryl had lighted the straw, and
+running to the barn held it under the edge of the roof, which
+began to burn fiercely; and by the light of the fire he could
+distinctly see his neighbor standing.
+
+As an eagle springs at a skylark, so sprang Ivan at Gavryl,
+saying: "I will tear you into pieces!  You shall not get away
+from me this time!"
+
+But "Gavryl the Lame," hearing footsteps, wrenched himself free
+from Ivan's grasp and ran like a hare past the buildings.
+
+Ivan, now terribly excited, shouted, "You shall not escape me!"
+and started in pursuit; but just as he reached him and was about
+to grasp the collar of his coat, Gavryl succeeded in jumping to
+one side, and Ivan's coat became entangled in something and he
+was thrown violently to the ground.  Jumping quickly to his feet
+he shouted, "Karaool! derji!"(watch! catch!)
+
+While Ivan was regaining his feet Gavryl succeeded in reaching
+his house, but Ivan followed so quickly that he caught up with
+him before he could enter.  Just as he was about to grasp him he
+was struck on the head with some hard substance.  He had been hit
+on the temple as with a stone.  The blow was struck by Gavryl,
+who had picked up an oaken stave, and with it gave Ivan a
+terrible blow on the head.
+
+Ivan was stunned, and bright sparks danced before his eyes, while
+he swayed from side to side like a drunken man, until finally all
+became dark and he sank to the ground unconscious.
+
+When he recovered his senses, Gavryl was nowhere to be seen, but
+all around him was as light as day.  Strange sounds proceeded
+from the direction of his house, and turning his face that way he
+saw that his barns were on fire.  The rear parts of both were
+already destroyed, and the flames were leaping toward the front.
+Fire, smoke, and bits of burning straw were being rapidly whirled
+by the high wind over to where his house stood, and he expected
+every moment to see it burst into flames.
+
+"What is this, brother?" Ivan cried out, as he beat his thighs
+with his hands.  "I should have stopped to snatch the bunch of
+burning straw, and, throwing it on the ground, should have
+extinguished it with my feet!"
+
+Ivan tried to cry out and arouse his people, but his lips refused
+to utter a word.  He next tried to run, but he could not move his
+feet, and his legs seemed to twist themselves around each other. 
+After several attempts he succeeded in taking one or two steps,
+when he again began to stagger and gasp for breath. It was some
+moments before he made another attempt to move, but after
+considerable exertion he finally reached the barn, the rear of
+which was by this time entirely consumed; and the corner of his
+house had already caught fire.  Dense volumes of smoke began to
+pour out of the room, which made it difficult to approach.
+
+A crowd of peasants had by this time gathered, but they found it
+impossible to save their homes, so they carried everything which
+they could to a place of safety.  The cattle they drove into
+neighboring pastures and left some one to care for them.
+
+The wind carried the sparks from Ivan's house to Gavryl's, and
+it, too, took fire and was consumed.  The wind continued to
+increase with great fury, and the flames spread to both sides of
+the street, until in a very short time more than half the village
+was burned.
+
+The members of Ivan's household had great difficulty in getting
+out of the burning building, but the neighbors rescued the old
+man and carried him to a place of safety, while the women escaped
+in only their night-clothes.  Everything was burned, including
+the cattle and all the farm implements.  The women lost their
+trunks, which were filled with quantities of clothing, the
+accumulation of years.  The storehouse and all the provisions
+perished in the flames, not even the chickens being saved.
+
+Gavryl, however, more fortunate than Ivan, saved his cattle and a
+few other things.
+
+The village was burning all night.
+
+Ivan stood near his home, gazing sadly at the burning building,
+and he kept constantly repeating to himself: "I should have taken
+away the bunch of burning straw, and have stamped out the fire
+with my feet."
+
+But when he saw his home fall in a smouldering heap, in spite of
+the terrible heat he sprang into the midst of it and carried out
+a charred log.  The women seeing him, and fearing that he would
+lose his life, called to him to come back, but he would not pay
+any attention to them and went a second time to get a log.  Still
+weak from the terrible blow which Gavryl had given him, he was
+overcome by the heat, and fell into the midst of the burning
+mass.  Fortunately, his eldest son saw him fall, and rushing into
+the fire succeeded in getting hold of him and carrying him out of
+it.  Ivan's hair, beard, and clothing were burned entirely off.
+His hands were also frightfully injured, but he seemed
+indifferent to pain.
+
+"Grief drove him crazy," the people said.
+
+The fire was growing less, but Ivan still stood where he could
+see it, and kept repeating to himself, "I should have taken,"
+etc.
+
+The morning after the fire the starosta (village elder) sent his
+son to Ivan to tell him that the old man, his father, was dying,
+and wanted to see him to bid him good-bye.
+
+In his grief Ivan had forgotten all about his father, and could
+not understand what was being said to him.  In a dazed way he
+asked: "What father?  Whom does he want?"
+
+The elder's son again repeated his father's message to Ivan. 
+"Your aged parent is at our house dying, and he wants to see you
+and bid you good-bye.  Won't you go now, uncle Ivan?" the boy
+said.
+
+Finally Ivan understood, and followed the elder's son.
+
+When Ivan's father was carried from the oven, he was slightly
+injured by a big bunch of burning straw falling on him just as he
+reached the street.  To insure his safety he was removed to the
+elder's house, which stood a considerable distance from his late
+home, and where it was not likely that the fire would reach it.
+
+When Ivan arrived at the elder's home he found only the latter's
+wife and children, who were all seated on the brick oven.  The
+old man was lying on a bench holding a lighted candle in his hand
+(a Russian custom when a person is dying).  Hearing a noise, he
+turned his face toward the door, and when he saw it was his son
+he tried to move.  He motioned for Ivan to come nearer, and when
+he did so he whispered in  a  trembling voice: "Well, Ivanushka,
+did I not tell you before what would be the result of this sad
+affair?  Who set the village on fire?"
+
+"He, he, batiushka [little father]; he did it.  I caught him.  He
+placed the bunch of burning straw to the barn in my presence. 
+Instead of running after him, I should have snatched the bunch of
+burning straw and throwing it on the ground have stamped it out
+with my feet; and then there would have been no fire."
+
+"Ivan," said the old man, "death is fast approaching me, and
+remember that you also will have to die.  Who did this dreadful
+thing?  Whose is the sin?"
+
+Ivan gazed at the noble face of his dying father and was silent. 
+His heart was too full for utterance.
+
+"In the presence of God," the old man continued, "whose is the
+sin?"
+
+It was only now that the truth began to dawn upon Ivan's mind,
+and that he realized how foolish he had acted.  He sobbed
+bitterly, and fell on his knees before his father, and, crying
+like a child, said:
+
+"My dear father, forgive me, for Christ's sake, for I am guilty
+before God and before you!"
+
+The old man transferred the lighted candle from his right hand to
+the left, and, raising the former to his forehead, tried to make
+the sign of the cross, but owing to weakness was unable to do so.
+
+"Glory to Thee, O Lord!  Glory to Thee!" he exclaimed; and
+turning his dim eyes toward his son, he said: "See here,
+Ivanushka!  Ivanushka, my dear son!"
+
+"What, my dear father?" Ivan asked.
+
+"What are you going to do," replied the old man, "now that you
+have no home?"
+
+Ivan cried and said: "I do not know how we shall live now."
+
+The old man closed his eyes and made a movement with his lips, as
+if gathering his feeble strength for a final effort.  Slowly
+opening his eyes, he whispered:
+
+"Should you live according to God's commands you will be happy
+and prosperous again."
+
+The old man was now silent for awhile and then, smiling sadly, he
+continued:
+
+"See here, Ivanushka, keep silent concerning this trouble, and do
+not tell who set the village on fire.  Forgive one sin of your
+neighbor's, and God will forgive two of yours."
+
+Grasping the candle with both hands, Ivan's father heaved a deep
+sigh, and, stretching himself out on his back, yielded up the
+ghost.
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+Ivan for once accepted his father's advice. He did not betray
+Gavryl, and no one ever learned the origin of the fire.
+
+Ivan's heart became more kindly disposed toward his old enemy,
+feeling that much of the fault in connection with this sad affair
+rested with himself.
+
+Gavryl was greatly surprised that Ivan did not denounce him
+before all the villagers, and at first he stood in much fear of
+him, but he soon afterward overcame this feeling.
+
+The two peasants ceased to quarrel, and their families followed
+their example.  While they were building new houses, both
+families lived beneath the same roof, and when they moved into
+their respective homes, Ivan and Gavryl lived on as good terms as
+their fathers had done before them.
+
+Ivan remembered his dying father's command, and took deeply to
+heart the evident warning of God that A FIRE SHOULD BE
+EXTINGUISHED IN THE BEGINNING.  If any one wronged him he did not
+seek revenge, but instead made every effort to settle the matter
+peaceably.  If any one spoke to him unkindly, he did not answer
+in the same way, but replied softly, and tried to persuade the
+person not to speak evil.  He taught the women and children of
+his household to do the same.
+
+Ivan Scherbakoff was now a reformed man.
+
+He lived well and peacefully, and again became prosperous.
+
+Let us, therefore, have peace, live in brotherly love and
+kindness, and we will be happy.
+
+ 
+
+"POLIKUSHKA;"
+
+OR,
+
+The Lot of a Wicked Court Servant.
+
+----------
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Polikey was a court man--one of the staff of servants belonging
+to the court household of a boyarinia (lady of the nobility).
+
+He held a very insignificant position on the estate, and lived in
+a rather poor, small house with his wife and children.
+
+The house was built by the deceased nobleman whose widow he still
+continued to serve, and may be described as follows: The four
+walls surrounding the one izba (room) were built of stone, and
+the interior was ten yards square.  A Russian stove stood in the
+centre, around which was a free passage.  Each corner was fenced
+off as a separate inclosure to the extent of several feet, and
+the one nearest to the door (the smallest of all) was known as
+"Polikey's corner."  Elsewhere in the room stood the bed (with
+quilt, sheet, and cotton pillows), the cradle (with a baby lying
+therein), and the three-legged table, on which the meals were
+prepared and the family washing was done.  At the latter also
+Polikey was at work on the preparation of some materials for use
+in his profession--that of an amateur veterinary surgeon.  A
+calf, some hens, the family clothes and household utensils,
+together with seven persons, filled the little home to the utmost
+of its capacity.  It would indeed have been almost impossible for
+them to move around had it not been for the convenience of the
+stove, on which some of them slept at night, and which served as
+a table in the day-time.
+
+It seemed hard to realize how so many persons managed to live in
+such close quarters.
+
+Polikey's wife, Akulina, did the washing, spun and wove, bleached
+her linen, cooked and baked, and found time also to quarrel and
+gossip with her neighbors.
+
+The monthly allowance of food which they received from the
+noblewoman's house was amply sufficient for the whole family, and
+there was always enough meal left to make mash for the cow. 
+Their fuel they got free, and likewise the food for the cattle. 
+In addition they were given a small piece of land on which to
+raise vegetables.  They had a cow, a calf, and a number of
+chickens to care for.
+
+Polikey was employed in the stables to take care of two
+stallions, and, when necessary, to bleed the horses and cattle
+and clean their hoofs.
+
+In his treatment of the animals he used syringes, plasters, and
+various other remedies and appliances of his own invention.  For
+these services he received whatever provisions were required by
+his family, and a certain sum of money--all of which would have
+been sufficient to enable them to live comfortably and even
+happily, if their hearts had not been filled with the shadow of a
+great sorrow.
+
+This shadow darkened the lives of the entire family.
+
+Polikey, while young, was employed in a horse-breeding
+establishment in a neighboring village.  The head stableman was a
+notorious horse-thief, known far and wide as a great rogue, who,
+for his many misdeeds, was finally exiled to Siberia.  Under his
+instruction Polikey underwent a course of training, and, being
+but a boy, was easily induced to perform many evil deeds.  He
+became so expert in the various kinds of wickedness practiced by
+his teacher that, though he many times would gladly have
+abandoned his evil ways, he could not, owing to the great hold
+these early-formed habits had upon him.  His father and mother
+died when he was but a child, and he had no one to point out to
+him the paths of virtue.
+
+In addition to his other numerous shortcomings, Polikey was fond
+of strong drink.  He also had a habit of appropriating other
+people's property, when the opportunity offered of his doing so
+without being seen.  Collar-straps, padlocks, perch-bolts, and
+things even of greater value belonging to others found their way
+with remarkable rapidity and in great quantities to Polikey's
+home.  He did not, however, keep such things for his own use, but
+sold them whenever he could find a purchaser.  His payment
+consisted chiefly of whiskey, though sometimes he received cash.
+
+This sort of employment, as his neighbors said, was both light
+and profitable; it required neither education nor labor.  It had
+one drawback, however, which was calculated to reconcile his
+victims to their losses: Though he could for a time have all his
+needs supplied without expending either labor or money, there was
+always the possibility of his methods being discovered; and this
+result was sure to be followed by a long term of imprisonment. 
+This impending danger made life a burden for Polikey and his
+family.
+
+Such a setback indeed very nearly happened to Polikey early in
+his career.  He married while still young, and God gave him much
+happiness.  His wife, who was a shepherd's daughter, was a
+strong, intelligent, hard-working woman.  She bore him many
+children, each of whom was said to be better than the preceding
+one.
+
+Polikey still continued to steal, but once was caught with some
+small articles belonging to others in his possession.  Among them
+was a pair of leather reins, the property of another peasant, who
+beat him severely and reported him to his mistress.
+
+From that time on Polikey was an object of suspicion, and he was
+twice again detected in similar escapades.  By this time the
+people began to abuse him, and the clerk of the court threatened
+to recruit him into the army as a soldier (which is regarded by
+the peasants as a great punishment and disgrace).  His noble
+mistress severely reprimanded him; his wife wept from grief for
+his downfall, and everything went from bad to worse.
+
+Polikey, notwithstanding his weakness, was a good-natured sort of
+man, but his love of strong drink had so overcome every moral
+instinct that at times he was scarcely responsible for his
+actions.  This habit he vainly endeavored to overcome.  It often
+happened that when he returned home intoxicated, his wife, losing
+all patience, roundly cursed him and cruelly beat him.  At times
+he would cry like a child, and bemoan his fate, saying:
+"Unfortunate man that I am, what shall I do?  LET MY EYES BURST
+INTO PIECES if I do not forever give up the vile habit!  I will
+not again touch vodki."
+
+In spite of all his promises of reform, but a short period
+(perhaps a month) would elapse when Polikey would again
+mysteriously disappear from his home and be lost for several days
+on a spree.
+
+"From what source does he get the money he spends so freely?" the
+neighbors inquired of each other, as they sadly shook their
+heads.
+
+One of his most unfortunate exploits in the matter of stealing
+was in connection with a clock which belonged to the estate of
+his mistress.  The clock stood in the private office of the
+noblewoman, and was so old as to have outlived its usefulness,
+and was simply kept as an heirloom.  It so happened that Polikey
+went into the office one day when no one was present but himself,
+and, seeing the old clock, it seemed to possess a peculiar
+fascination for him, and he speedily transferred it to his
+person.  He carried it to a town not far from the village, where
+he very readily found a purchaser.
+
+As if purposely to secure his punishment, it happened that the
+storekeeper to whom he sold it proved to be a relative of one of
+the court servants, and who, when he visited his friend on the
+next holiday, related all about his purchase of the clock.
+
+An investigation was immediately instituted, and all the details
+of Polikey's transaction were brought to light and reported to
+his noble mistress.  He was called into her presence, and, when
+confronted with the story of the theft, broke down and confessed
+all.  He fell on his knees before the noblewoman and plead with
+her for mercy.  The kind-hearted lady lectured him about God, the
+salvation of his soul, and his future life.  She talked to him
+also about the misery and disgrace he brought upon his family,
+and altogether so worked upon his feelings that he cried like a
+child.  In conclusion his kind mistress said: "I will forgive you
+this time on the condition that you promise faithfully to reform,
+and never again to take what does not belong to you."
+
+Polikey, still weeping, replied: "I will never steal again in all
+my life, and if I break my promise may the earth open and swallow
+me up, and let my body be burned with red-hot irons!"
+
+Polikey returned to his home, and throwing himself on the oven
+spent the entire day weeping and repeating the promise made to
+his mistress.
+
+From that time on he was not again caught stealing, but his life
+became extremely sad, for he was regarded with suspicion by every
+one and pointed to as a thief.
+
+When the time came round for securing recruits for the army, all
+the peasants singled out Polikey as the first to be taken.  The
+superintendent was especially anxious to get rid of him, and went
+to his mistress to induce her to have him sent away.  The
+kind-hearted and merciful woman, remembering the peasant's
+repentance, refused to grant the superintendent's request, and
+told him he must take some other man in his stead.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER II.
+
+One evening Polikey was sitting on his bed beside the table,
+preparing some medicine for the cattle, when suddenly the door
+was thrown wide open, and Aksiutka, a young girl from the court,
+rushed in.  Almost out of breath, she said: "My mistress has
+ordered you, Polikey Illitch [son of Ilia], to come up to the
+court at once!"
+
+The girl was standing and still breathing heavily from her late
+exertion as she continued: "Egor Mikhailovitch, the
+superintendent, has been to see our lady about having you drafted
+into the army, and, Polikey Illitch, your name was mentioned
+among others.  Our lady has sent me to tell you to come up to the
+court immediately."
+
+As soon as Aksiutka had delivered her message she left the room
+in the same abrupt manner in which she had entered.
+
+Akulina, without saying a word, got up and brought her husband's
+boots to him.  They were poor, worn-out things which some soldier
+had given him, and his wife did not glance at him as she handed
+them to him.
+
+"Are you going to change your shirt, Illitch?" she asked, at
+last.
+
+"No," replied Polikey.
+
+Akulina did not once look at him all the time he was putting on
+his boots and preparing to go to the court.  Perhaps, after all,
+it was better that she did not do so.  His face was very pale and
+his lips trembled.  He slowly combed his hair and was about to
+depart without saying a word, when his wife stopped him to
+arrange the ribbon on his shirt, and, after toying a little with
+his coat, she put his hat on for him and he left the little home.
+
+Polikey's next-door neighbors were a joiner and his wife.  A thin
+partition only separated the two families, and each could hear
+what the other said and did.  Soon after Polikey's departure a
+woman was heard to say: "Well, Polikey Illitch, so your mistress
+has sent for you!"
+
+The voice was that of the joiner's wife on the other side of the
+partition.  Akulina and the woman had quarrelled that morning
+about some trifling thing done by one of Polikey's children, and
+it afforded her the greatest pleasure to learn that her neighbor
+had been summoned into the presence of his noble mistress.  She
+looked upon such a circumstance as a bad omen.  She continued
+talking to herself and said: "Perhaps she wants to send him to
+the town to make some purchases for her household.  I did not
+suppose she would select such a faithful man as you are to
+perform such a service for her.  If it should prove that she DOES
+want to send you to the next town, just buy me a quarter-pound of
+tea.  Will you, Polikey Illitch?"
+
+Poor Akulina, on hearing the joiner's wife talking so unkindly of
+her husband, could hardly suppress the tears, and, the tirade
+continuing, she at last became angry, and wished she could in
+some way punish her.
+
+Forgetting her neighbor's unkindness, her thoughts soon turned in
+another direction, and glancing at her sleeping children she said
+to herself that they might soon be orphans and she herself a
+soldier's widow.  This thought greatly distressed her, and
+burying her face in her hands she seated herself on the bed,
+where several of her progeny were fast asleep.  Presently a
+little voice interrupted her meditations by crying out, "Mamushka
+[little mother], you are crushing me," and the child pulled her
+nightdress from under her mother's arms.
+
+Akulina, with her head still resting on her hands, said: "Perhaps
+it would be better if we all should die.  I only seem to have
+brought you into the world to suffer sorrow and misery."
+
+Unable longer to control her grief, she burst into violent
+weeping, which served to increase the amusement of the joiner's
+wife, who had not forgotten the morning's squabble, and she
+laughed loudly at her neighbor's woe.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER III.
+
+About half an hour had passed when the youngest child began to
+cry and Akulina arose to feed it.  She had by this time ceased to
+weep, and after feeding the infant she again fell into her old
+position, with her face buried in her hands. She was very pale,
+but this only increased her beauty.  After a time she raised her
+head, and staring at the burning candle she began to question
+herself as to why she had married, and as to the reason that the
+Czar required so many soldiers.
+
+Presently she heard steps outside, and knew that her husband was
+returning.  She hurriedly wiped away the last traces of her tears
+as she arose to let him pass into the centre of the room.
+
+Polikey made his appearance with a look of triumph on his face,
+threw his hat on the bed, and hastily removed his coat; but not a
+word did he utter.
+
+Akulina, unable to restrain her impatience, asked, "Well, what
+did she want with you?"
+
+"Pshaw!" he replied, "it is very well known that Polikushka is
+considered the worst man in the village; but when it comes to
+business of importance, who is selected then?  Why, Polikushka,
+of course."
+
+"What kind of business?" Akulina timidly inquired.
+
+But Polikey was in no hurry to answer her question.  He lighted
+his pipe with a very imposing air, and spit several times on the
+floor before he replied.
+
+Still retaining his pompous manner, he said, "She has ordered me
+to go to a certain merchant in the town and collect a
+considerable sum of money."
+
+"You to collect money?" questioned Akulina.
+
+Polikey only shook his head and smiled significantly, saying:
+
+"'You,' the mistress said to me, 'are a man resting under a grave
+suspicion--a man who is considered unsafe to trust in any
+capacity; but I have faith in you, and will intrust you with this
+important business of mine in preference to any one else.'"
+
+Polikey related all this in a loud voice, so that his neighbor
+might hear what he had to say.
+
+"'You promised me to reform,' my noble mistress said to me, 'and
+I will be the first to show you how much faith I have in your
+promise.  I want you to ride into town, and, going to the
+principal merchant there, collect a sum of money from him and
+bring it to me.'  I said to my mistress: 'Everything you order
+shall be done.  I will only too gladly obey your slightest wish.'
+
+Then my mistress said: 'Do you understand, Polikey, that your
+future lot depends upon the faithful performance of this duty I
+impose upon you?'  I replied: 'Yes, I understand everything, and
+feel that I will suceed in performing acceptably any task which
+you may impose upon me.  I have been accused of every kind of
+evil deed that it is possible to charge a man with, but I have
+never done anything seriously wrong against you, your honor.' In
+this way I talked to our mistress until I succeeded in convincing
+her that my repentance was sincere, and she became greatly
+softened toward me, saying, 'If you are successful I will give
+you the first place at the court.'"
+
+"And how much money are you to collect?" inquired Akulina.
+
+"Fifteen hundred rubles," carelessly answered Polikey.
+
+Akulina sadly shook her head as she asked, "When are you to
+start?"
+
+"She ordered me to leave here to-morrow," Polikey replied.  'Take
+any horse you please,' she said.  'Come to the office, and I will
+see you there and wish you God-speed on your journey.'"
+
+"Glory to Thee, O Lord!" said Akulina, as she arose and made the
+sign of the cross.  "God, I am sure, will bless you, Illitch,"
+she added, in a whisper, so that the people on the other side of
+the partition could not hear what she said, all the while holding
+on to his sleeve. "Illitch," she cried at last, excitedly, "for
+God's sake promise me that you will not touch a drop of vodki. 
+Take an oath before God, and kiss the cross, so that I may be
+sure that you will not break your promise!"
+
+Polikey replied in most contemptuous tones: "Do you think I will
+dare to touch vodki when I shall have such a large sum of money
+in my care?"
+
+"Akulina, have a clean shirt ready for the morning," were his
+parting words for the night.
+
+So Polikey and his wife went to sleep in a happy frame of mind
+and full of bright dreams for the future.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Very early the next morning, almost before the stars had hidden
+themselves from view, there was seen standing before Polikey's
+home a low wagon, the same in which the superintendent himself
+used to ride; and harnessed to it was a large-boned, dark-brown
+mare, called for some unknown reason by the name of Baraban
+(drum).  Aniutka, Polikey's eldest daughter, in spite of the
+heavy rain and the cold wind which was blowing, stood outside
+barefooted and held (not without some fear) the reins in ore
+hand, while with the other she endeavored to keep her green and
+yellow overcoat wound around her body, and also to hold Polikey's
+sheepskin coat.
+
+In the house there were the greatest noise and confusion.  The
+morning was still so dark that the little daylight there was
+failed to penetrate through the broken panes of glass, the window
+being stuffed in many places with rags and paper to exclude the
+cold air.
+
+Akulina ceased from her cooking for a while and helped to get
+Polikey ready for the journey. Most of the children were still in
+bed, very likely as a protection against the cold, for Akulina
+had taken away the big overcoat which usually covered them and
+had substituted a shawl of her own.  Polikey's shirt was all
+ready, nice and clean, but his shoes badly needed repairing, and
+this fact caused his devoted wife much anxiety.  She took from
+her own feet the thick woollen stockings she was wearing, and
+gave them to Polikey.  She then began to repair his shoes,
+patching up the holes so as to protect his feet from dampness.
+
+While this was going on he was sitting on the side of the bed
+with his feet dangling over the edge, and trying to turn the sash
+which confined his coat at the waist.  He was anxious to look as
+clean as possible, and he declared his sash looked like a dirty
+rope.
+
+One of his daughters, enveloped in a sheepskin coat, was sent to
+a neighbor's house to borrow a hat.
+
+Within Polikey's home the greatest confusion reigned, for the
+court servants were constantly arriving with innumerable small
+orders which they wished Polikey to execute for them in town. 
+One wanted needles, another tea, another tobacco, and last came
+the joiner's wife, who by this time had prepared her samovar,
+and, anxious to make up the quarrel of the previous day, brought
+the traveller a cup of tea.
+
+Neighbor Nikita refused the loan of the hat, so the old one had
+to be patched up for the occasion.  This occupied some time, as
+there were many holes in it.
+
+Finally Polikey was all ready, and jumping on the wagon started
+on his journey, after first making the sign of the cross.
+
+At the last moment his little boy, Mishka, ran to the door,
+begging to be given a short ride; and then his little daughter,
+Mashka, appeared on the scene and pleaded that she, too, might
+have a ride, declaring that she would be quite warm enough
+without furs.
+
+Polikey stopped the horse on hearing the children, and Akulina
+placed them in the wagon, together with two others belonging to a
+neighbor--all anxious to have a short ride.
+
+As Akulina helped the little ones into the wagon she took
+occasion to remind Polikey of the solemn promise he had made her
+not to touch a drop of vodki during the journey.
+
+Polikey drove the children as far as the blacksmith's place,
+where he let them out of the wagon, telling them they must return
+home.  He then arranged his clothing, and, setting his hat firmly
+on his head, started his horse on a trot.
+
+The two children, Mishka and Mashka, both barefooted, started
+running at such a rapid pace that a strange dog from another
+village, seeing them flying over the road, dropped his tail
+between his legs and ran home squealing.
+
+The weather was very cold, a sharp cutting wind blowing
+continuously; but this did not disturb Polikey, whose mind was
+engrossed with pleasant thoughts.  As he rode through the wintry
+blasts he kept repeating to himself: "So I am the man they wanted
+to send to Siberia, and whom they threatened to enroll as a
+soldier--the same man whom every one abused, and said he was
+lazy, and who was pointed out as a thief and given the meanest
+work on the estate to do!  Now I am going to receive a large sum
+of money, for which my mistress is sending me because she trusts
+me.  I am also riding in the same wagon that the superintendent
+himself uses when he is riding as a representative of the court. 
+I have the same harness, leather horse-collar, reins, and all the
+other gear."
+
+Polikey, filled with pride at thought of the mission with which
+he had been intrusted, drew himself up with an air of pride, and,
+fixing his old hat more firmly on his head, buttoned his coat
+tightly about him and urged his horse to greater speed.
+
+"Just to think," he continued; "I shall have in my possession
+three thousand half-rubles [the peasant manner of speaking of
+money so as to make it appear a larger sum than it really is],
+and will carry them in my bosom.  If I wished to I might run away
+to Odessa instead of taking the money to my mistress.  But no; I
+will not do that.  I will surely carry the money straight to the
+one who has been kind enough to trust me."
+
+When Polikey reached the first kabak (tavern) he found that from
+long habit the mare was naturally turning her head toward it; but
+he would not allow her to stop, though money had been given him
+to purchase both food and drink.  Striking the animal a sharp
+blow with the whip, he passed by the tavern.  The performance was
+repeated when he reached the next kabak, which looked very
+inviting; but he resolutely set his face against entering, and
+passed on.
+
+About noon he arrived at his destination, and getting down from
+the wagon approached the gate of the merchant's house where the
+servants of the court always stopped.  Opening it he led the mare
+through, and (after unharnessing her) fed her.  This done, he
+next entered the house and had dinner with the merchant's
+workingman, and to them he related what an important mission he
+had been sent on, making himself very amusing by the pompous air
+which he assumed.  Dinner over, he carried a letter to the
+merchant which the noblewoman had given him to deliver.
+
+The merchant, knowing thoroughly the reputation which Polikey
+bore, felt doubtful of trusting him with so much money, and
+somewhat anxiously inquired if he really had received orders to
+carry so many rubles.
+
+Polikey tried to appear offended at this question, but did not
+succeed, and he only smiled.
+
+The merchant, after reading the letter a second time and being
+convinced that all was right, gave Polikey the money, which he
+put in his bosom for safe-keeping.
+
+On his way to the house he did not once stop at any of the shops
+he passed.  The clothing establishments possessed no attractions
+for him, and after he had safely passed them all he stood for a
+moment, feeling very pleased that he had been able to withstand
+temptation, and then went on his way.
+
+"I have money enough to buy up everything," he said; "but I will
+not do so."
+
+The numerous commissions which he had received compelled him to
+go to the bazaar.  There he bought only what had been ordered,
+but he could not resist the temptation to ask the price of a very
+handsome sheep-skin coat which attracted his attention.  The
+merchant to whom he spoke looked at Polikey and smiled, not
+believing that he had sufficient money to purchase such an
+expensive coat.  But Polikey, pointing to his breast, said that
+he could buy out the whole shop if he wished to.  He thereupon
+ordered the shop-keeper to take his measure.  He tried the coat
+on and looked himself over carefully, testing the quality and
+blowing upon the hair to see that none of it came out.  Finally,
+heaving a deep sigh, he took it off.
+
+"The price is too high," he said.  "If you could let me have it
+for fifteen rubles--"
+
+But the merchant cut him short by snatching the coat from him and
+throwing it angrily to one side.
+
+Polikey left the bazaar and returned to the merchant's house in
+high spirits.
+
+After supper he went out and fed the mare, and prepared
+everything for the night.  Returning to the house he got up on
+the stove to rest, and while there he took out the envelope which
+contained the money and looked long and earnestly at it.  He
+could not read, but asked one of those present to tell him what
+the writing on the envelope meant.  It was simply the address and
+the announcement that it contained fifteen hundred rubles.
+
+The envelope was made of common paper and was sealed with
+dark-brown sealing wax.  There was one large seal in the centre
+and four smaller ones at the corners.  Polikey continued to
+examine it carefully, even inserting his finger till he touched
+the crisp notes.  He appeared to take a childish delight in
+having so much money in his possession.
+
+Having finished his examination, he put the envelope inside the
+lining of his old battered hat, and placing both under his head
+he went to sleep; but during the night he frequently awoke and
+always felt to know if the money was safe.  Each time that he
+found that it was safe he rejoiced at the thought that he,
+Polikey, abused and regarded by every one as a thief, was
+intrusted with the care of such a large sum of money, and also
+that he was about to return with it quite as safely as the
+superintendent himself could have done.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Before dawn the next morning Polikey was up, and after harnessing
+the mare and looking in his hat to see that the money was all
+right, he started on his return journey.
+
+Many times on the way Polikey took off his hat to see that the
+money was safe.  Once he said to himself, "I think that perhaps
+it would be better if I should put it in my bosom."  This would
+necessitate the untying of his sash, so he decided to keep it
+still in his hat, or until he should have made half the journey,
+when he would be compelled to stop to feed his horse and to rest.
+
+He said to himself: "The lining is not sewn in very strongly and
+the envelope might fall out, so I think I had better not take off
+my hat until I reach home."
+
+The money was safe--at least, so it seemed to him--and he began
+to think how grateful his mistress would be to him, and in his
+excited imagination he saw the five rubles he was so sure of
+receiving.
+
+Once more he examined the hat to see that the money was safe, and
+finding everything all right he put on his hat and pulled it well
+down over his ears, smiling all the while at his own thoughts.
+
+Akulina had carefully sewed all the holes in the hat, but it
+burst out in other places owing to Polikey's removing it so
+often.
+
+In the darkness he did not notice the new rents, and tried to
+push the envelope further under the lining, and in doing so
+pushed one corner of it through the plush.
+
+The sun was getting high in the heavens, and Polikey having slept
+but little the previous night and feeling its warm rays fell fast
+asleep, after first pressing his hat more firmly on his head.  By
+this action he forced the envelope still further through the
+plush, and as he rode along his head bobbed up and down.
+
+Polikey did not awake till he arrived near his own house, and his
+first act was to put his hand to his head to learn if his hat was
+all right.  Finding that it was in its place, he did not think it
+necessary to examine it and see that the money was safe. 
+Touching the mare gently with the whip she started into a trot,
+and as he rode along he arranged in his own mind how much he was
+to receive.  With the air of a man already holding a high
+position at the court, he looked around him with an expression of
+lofty scorn on his face.
+
+As he neared his house he could see before him the one room which
+constituted their humble home, and the joiner's wife next door
+carry- ing her rolls of linen.  He saw also the office of the
+court and his mistress's house, where he hoped he would be able
+presently to prove that he was an honest, trustworthy man.
+
+He reasoned with himself that any person can be abused by lying
+tongues, but when his mistress would see him she would say: "Well
+done, Polikey; you have shown that you can be honest.  Here are
+three--it may be five--perhaps ten--rubles for you;" and also she
+would order tea for him, and might treat him to vodki--who knows?
+
+The latter thought gave him great pleasure, as he was feeling
+very cold.
+
+Speaking aloud he said: "What a happy holy-day we can have with
+ten rubles!  Having so much money, I could pay Nikita the four
+rubles fifty kopecks which I owe him, and yet have some left to
+buy shoes for the children."
+
+When near the house Polikey began to arrange his clothes,
+smoothing down his fur collar, re-tying his sash, and stroking
+his hair.  To do the latter he had to take off his hat, and when
+doing so felt in the lining for the envelope.  Quicker and
+quicker he ran his hand around the lining, and not finding the
+money used both hands, first one and then the other. But the
+envelope was not to be found.
+
+Polikey was by this time greatly distressed, and his face was
+white with fear as he passed his hand through the crown of his
+old hat. Polikey stopped the mare and began a diligent search
+through the wagon and its contents.  Not finding the precious
+envelope, he felt in all his pockets--BUT THE MONEY COULD NOT BE
+FOUND!
+
+Wildly clutching at his hair, he exclaimed: "Batiushka!  What
+will I do now?  What will become of me?"  At the same time he
+realized that he was near his neighbors' house and could be seen
+by them; so he turned the mare around, and, pulling his hat down
+securely upon his head, he rode quickly back in search of his
+lost treasure.
+
+ 
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The whole day passed without any one in the village of Pokrovski
+having seen anything of Polikey.  During the afternoon his
+mistress inquired many times as to his whereabouts, and sent
+Aksiutka frequently to Akulina, who each time sent back word that
+Polikey had not yet returned, saying also that perhaps the
+merchant had kept him, or that something had happened to the
+mare.
+
+His poor wife felt a heavy load upon her heart, and was scarcely
+able to do her housework and put everything in order for the next
+day (which was to be a holy-day).  The children also anxiously
+awaited their father's appearance, and, though for different
+reasons, could hardly restrain their impatience.  The noblewoman
+and Akulina were concerned only in regard to Polikey himself,
+while the children were interested most in what he would bring
+them from the town.
+
+The only news received by the villagers during the day concerning
+Polikey was to the effect that neighboring peasants had seen him
+running up and down the road and asking every one he met if he or
+she had found an envelope.
+
+One of them had seen him also walking by the side of his
+tired-out horse.  "I thought," said he, "that the man was drunk,
+and had not fed his horse for two days--the animal looked so
+exhausted."
+
+Unable to sleep, and with her heart palpitating at every sound,
+Akulina lay awake all night vainly awaiting Polikey's return.
+When the cock crowed the third time she was obliged to get up to
+attend to the fire.  Day was just dawning and the church-bells
+had begun to ring.  Soon all the children were also up, but there
+was still no tidings of the missing husband and father.
+
+In the morning the chill blasts of winter entered their humble
+home, and on looking out they saw that the houses, fields, and
+roads were thickly covered with snow.  The day was clear and
+cold, as if befitting the holy-day they were about to celebrate. 
+They were able to see a long distance from the house, but no one
+was in sight.
+
+Akulina was busy baking cakes, and had it not been for the joyous
+shouts of the children she would not have known that Polikey was
+coming up the road, for a few minutes later he came in with a
+bundle in his hand and walked quietly to his corner.  Akulina
+noticed that he was very pale and that his face bore an
+expression of suffering--as if he would like to have cried but
+could not do so.  But she did not stop to study it, but excitedly
+inquired: "What!  Illitch, is everything all right with you?"
+
+He slowly muttered something, but his wife could not understand
+what he said.
+
+"What!" she cried out, "have you been to see our mistress?"
+
+Polikey still sat on the bed in his corner, glaring wildly about
+him, and smiling bitterly. He did not reply for a long time, and
+Akulina again cried:
+
+"Eh?  Illitch!  Why don't you answer me?  Why don't you speak?"
+
+Finally he said: "Akulina, I delivered the money to our mistress;
+and oh, how she thanked me!"  Then he suddenly looked about him,
+with an anxious, startled air, and with a sad smile on his lips. 
+Two things in the room seemed to engross the most of his
+attention: the baby in the cradle, and the rope which was
+attached to the ladder.  Approaching the cradle, he began with
+his thin fingers quickly to untie the knot in the rope by which
+the two were connected.  After untying it he stood for a few
+moments looking silently at the baby.
+
+Akulina did not notice this proceeding, and with her cakes on the
+board went to place them in a corner.
+
+Polikey quickly hid the rope beneath his coat, and again seated
+himself on the bed.
+
+"What is it that troubles you, Illitch?" inquired Akulina.  "You
+are not yourself."
+
+"I have not slept," he answered.
+
+Suddenly a dark shadow crossed the window, and a minute later the
+girl Aksiutka quickly entered the room, exclaiming:
+
+"The boyarinia commands you, Polikey Illitch, to come to her this
+moment!"
+
+Polikey looked first at Akulina and then at the girl.
+
+"This moment!" he cried.  "What more is wanted?"
+
+He spoke the last sentence so softly that Akulina became quieted
+in her mind, thinking that perhaps their mistress intended to
+reward her husband.
+
+"Say that I will come immediately," he said.
+
+But Polikey failed to follow the girl, and went instead to
+another place.
+
+From the porch of his house there was a ladder reaching to the
+attic.  Arriving at the foot of the ladder Polikey looked around
+him, and seeing no one about, he quickly ascended to the
+garret.
+
+* * * * * * *
+
+Meanwhile the girl had reached her mistress's house.
+
+"What does it mean that Polikey does not come?" said the
+noblewoman impatiently.  "Where can he be?  Why does he not come
+at once?"
+
+Aksiutka flew again to his house and demanded to see Polikey.
+
+"He went a long time ago," answered Akulina, and looking around
+with an expression of fear on her face, she added, "He may have
+fallen asleep somewhere on the way."
+
+About this time the joiner's wife, with hair unkempt and clothes
+bedraggled, went up to the loft to gather the linen which she had
+previously put there to dry.  Suddenly a cry of  horror was
+heard, and the woman, with her eyes closed, and crazed by fear,
+ran down the ladder like a cat.
+
+"Illitch," she cried, "has hanged himself!"
+
+Poor Akulina ran up the ladder before any of the people, who had
+gathered from the surrounding houses, could prevent her.  With a
+loud shriek she fell back as if dead, and would surely have been
+killed had not one of the spectators succeeded in catching her in
+his arms.
+
+Before dark the same day a peasant of the village, while
+returning from the town, found the envelope containing Polikey's
+money on the roadside, and soon after delivered it to the
+boyarinia.
+
+
+
+
+THE CANDLE.
+
+"Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a
+tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, That ye resist not
+evil."--ST. MATTHEW V. 38, 39.
+
+----------
+
+It was in the time of serfdom--many years before Alexander II.'s
+liberation of the sixty million serfs in 1862.  In those days the
+people were ruled by different kinds of lords.  There were not a
+few who, remembering God, treated their slaves in a humane
+manner, and not as beasts of burden, while there were others who
+were seldom known to perform a kind or generous action; but the
+most barbarous and tyrannical of all were those former serfs who
+arose from the dirt and became princes.
+
+It was this latter class who made life literally a burden to
+those who were unfortunate enough to come under their rule.  Many
+of them had arisen from the ranks of the peasantry to become
+superintendents of noblemen's estates.
+
+The peasants were obliged to work for their master a certain
+number of days each week.  There was plenty of land and water and
+the soil was rich and fertile, while the meadows and forests were
+sufficient to supply the needs of both the peasants and their
+lord.
+
+There was a certain nobleman who had chosen a superintendent from
+the peasantry on one of his other estates.  No sooner had the
+power to govern been vested in this newly-made official than he
+began to practice the most outrageous cruelties upon the poor
+serfs who had been placed under his control.  Although this man
+had a wife and two married daughters, and was making so much
+money that he could have lived happily without transgressing in
+any way against either God or man, yet he was filled with envy
+and jealousy and deeply sunk in sin.
+
+Michael Simeonovitch began his persecutions by compelling the
+peasants to perform more days of service on the estate every week
+than the laws obliged them to work.  He established a brick-yard,
+in which he forced the men and women to do excessive labor,
+selling the bricks for his own profit.
+
+On one occasion the overworked serfs sent a delegation to Moscow
+to complain of their treatment to their lord, but they obtained
+no satisfaction.  When the poor peasants returned disconsolate
+from the nobleman their superintendent determined to have revenge
+for their boldness in going above him for redress, and their life
+and that of their fellow-victims became worse than before.
+
+It happened that among the serfs there were some very treacherous
+people who would falsely accuse their fellows of wrong-doing and
+sow seeds of discord among the peasantry, whereupon Michael would
+become greatly enraged, while his poor subjects began to live in
+fear of their lives.  When the superintendent passed through the
+village the people would run and hide themselves as from a wild
+beast.  Seeing thus the terror which he had struck to the hearts
+of the moujiks, Michael's treatment of them became still more
+vindictive, so that from over-work and ill-usage the lot of the
+poor serfs was indeed a hard one.
+
+There was a time when it was possible for the peasants, when
+driven to despair, to devise means whereby they could rid
+themselves of an inhuman monster such as Simeonovitch, and so
+these unfortunate people began to consider whether something
+could not be done to relieve THEM of their intolerable yoke. 
+They would hold little meetings in secret places to bewail their
+misery and to confer with one another as to which would be the
+best way to act.  Now and then the boldest of the gathering
+would rise and address his companions in this strain: "How much
+longer can we tolerate such a villain to rule over us?  Let us
+make an end of it at once, for it were better for us to perish
+than to suffer.  It is surely not a sin to kill such a devil in
+human form."
+
+It happened once, before the Easter holidays, that one of these
+meetings was held in the woods, where Michael had sent the serfs
+to make a clearance for their master.  At noon they assembled to
+eat their dinner and to hold a consultation.  "Why can't we leave
+now?" said one.  "Very soon we shall be reduced to nothing. 
+Already we are almost worked to death--there being no rest, night
+or day, either for us or our poor women.  If anything should be
+done in a way not exactly to please him he will find fault and
+perhaps flog some of us to death--as was the case with poor
+Simeon, whom he killed not long ago.  Only recently Anisim was
+tortured in irons till he died.  We certainly cannot stand this
+much longer."  "Yes," said another, "what is the use of waiting? 
+Let us act at once.  Michael will be here this evening, and will
+be certain to abuse us shamefully.  Let us, then, thrust him from
+his horse and with one blow of an axe give him what he deserves,
+and thus end our misery.  We can then dig a big hole and bury him
+like a dog, and no one will know what became of him.  Now let us
+come to an agreement--to stand together as one man and not to
+betray one another."
+
+The last speaker was Vasili Minayeff, who, if possible, had more
+cause to complain of Michael's cruelty than any of his
+fellow-serfs.  The superintendent was in the habit of flogging
+him severely every week, and he took also Vasili's wife to serve
+him as cook.
+
+Accordingly, during the evening that followed this meeting in the
+woods Michael arrived on the scene on horseback.  He began at
+once to find fault with the manner in which the work had been
+done, and to complain because some lime-trees had been cut down.
+
+"I told you not to cut down any lime-trees!" shouted the enraged
+superintendent.  "Who did this thing?  Tell me at once, or I
+shall flog every one of you!"
+
+On investigation, a peasant named Sidor was pointed out as the
+guilty one, and his face was roundly slapped.  Michael also
+severely punished Vasili, because he had not done sufficient
+work, after which the master rode safely home.
+
+In the evening the serfs again assembled, and poor Vasili said:
+"Oh, what kind of people ARE we, anyway?  We are only sparrows,
+and not men at all!  We agree to stand by each other, but as soon
+as the time for action comes we all run and hide.  Once a lot of
+sparrows conspired against a hawk, but no sooner did the bird of
+prey appear than they sneaked off in the grass.  Selecting one of
+the choicest sparrows, the hawk took it away to eat, after which
+the others came out crying, 'Twee-twee!' and found that one was
+missing.  'Who is killed?' they asked.  'Vanka!  Well, he
+deserved it.'  You, my friends, are acting in just the same
+manner.  When Michael attacked Sidor you should have stood by
+your promise.  Why didn't you arise, and with one stroke put an
+end to him and to our misery?"
+
+The effect of this speech was to make the peasants more firm in
+their determination to kill their superintendent.  The latter had
+already given orders that they should be ready to plough during
+the Easter holidays, and to sow the field with oats, whereupon
+the serfs became stricken with grief, and gathered in Vasili's
+house to hold another indignation meeting.  "If he has really
+forgotten God," they said, "and shall continue to commit such
+crimes against us, it is truly necessary that we should kill him. 
+If not, let us perish, for it can make no difference to us now."
+
+This despairing programme, however, met with considerable
+opposition from a peaceably-inclined man named Peter Mikhayeff. 
+"Brethren," said he, "you are contemplating a grievous sin.  The
+taking of human life is a very serious matter.  Of course it is
+easy to end the mortal existence of a man, but what will become
+of the souls of those who commit the deed?  If Michael continues
+to act toward us unjustly God will surely punish him.  But, my
+friends, we must have patience."
+
+This pacific utterance only served to intensify the anger of
+Vasili.  Said he: "Peter is forever repeating the same old story,
+'It is a sin to kill any one.'  Certainly it is sinful to murder;
+but we should consider the kind of man we are dealing with.  We
+all know it is wrong to kill a good man, but even God would take
+away the life of such a dog as he is.  It is our duty, if we have
+any love for mankind, to shoot a dog that is mad.  It is a sin to
+let him live. If, therefore, we are to suffer at all, let it be
+in the interests of the people--and they will thank us for it. 
+If we remain quiet any longer a flogging will be our only reward. 
+You are talking nonsense, Mikhayeff.  Why don't you think of the
+sin we shall be committing if we work during the Easter
+holidays--for you will refuse to work then yourself?"
+
+"Well, then," replied Peter, "if they shall send me to plough, I
+will go.  But I shall not be going of my own free will, and God
+will know whose sin it is, and shall punish the offender
+accordingly.  Yet we must not forget him. Brethren, I am not
+giving you my own views only.  The law of God is not to return
+evil for evil; indeed, if you try in this way to stamp out
+wickedness it will come upon you all the stronger.  It is not
+difficult for you to kill the man, but his blood will surely
+stain your own soul.  You may think you have killed a bad
+man--that you have gotten rid of evil--but you will soon find out
+that the seeds of still greater wickedness have been planted
+within you.  If you yield to misfortune it will surely come to
+you."
+
+As Peter was not without sympathizers among the peasants, the
+poor serfs were consequently divided into two groups: the
+followers of Vasili and those who held the views of Mikhayeff.
+
+On Easter Sunday no work was done.  Toward the evening an elder
+came to the peasants from the nobleman's court and said: "Our
+superintendent, Michael Simeonovitch, orders you to go to-morrow
+to plough the field for the oats." Thus the official went through
+the village and directed the men to prepare for work the next
+day--some by the river and others by the roadway.  The poor
+people were almost overcome with grief, many of them shedding
+tears, but none dared to disobey the orders of their master.
+
+On the morning of Easter Monday, while the church bells were
+calling the inhabitants to religious services, and while every
+one else was about to enjoy a holiday, the unfortunate serfs
+started for the field to plough.  Michael arose rather late and
+took a walk about the farm. The domestic servants were through
+with their work and had dressed themselves for the day, while
+Michael's wife and their widowed daughter (who was visiting them,
+as was her custom on holidays) had been to church and returned. 
+A steaming samovar awaited them, and they  began to drink tea
+with Michael, who, after lighting his pipe, called the elder to
+him.
+
+"Well," said the superintendent, "have you ordered the moujiks to
+plough to-day?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I did," was the reply.
+
+"Have they all gone to the field?"
+
+"Yes, sir; all of them.  I directed them myself where to begin."
+
+"That is all very well.  You gave the orders, but are they
+ploughing?  Go at once and see, and you may tell them that I
+shall be there after dinner.  I shall expect to find one and a
+half acres done for every two ploughs, and the work must be well
+done; otherwise they shall be severely punished, notwithstanding
+the holiday."
+
+"I hear, sir, and obey."
+
+The elder started to go, but Michael called him back.  After
+hesitating for some time, as if he felt very uneasy, he said:
+
+"By the way, listen to what those scoundrels say about me. 
+Doubtless some of them will curse me, and I want you to report
+the exact words.  I know what villains they are.  They don't find
+work at all pleasant.  They would rather lie down all day and do
+nothing.  They would like to eat and drink and make merry on
+holidays, but they forget that if the ploughing is not done it
+will soon be too late.  So you go and listen to what is said, and
+tell it to me in detail.  Go at once."
+
+"I hear, sir, and obey."
+
+Turning his back and mounting his horse, the elder was soon at
+the field where the serfs were hard at work.
+
+It happened that Michael's wife, a very good-hearted woman,
+overheard the conversation which her husband had just been
+holding with the elder.  Approaching him, she said:
+
+"My good friend, Mishinka [diminutive of Michael], I beg of you
+to consider the importance and solemnity of this holy-day.  Do
+not sin, for Christ's sake.  Let the poor moujiks go home."
+
+Michael laughed, but made no reply to his wife's humane request. 
+Finally he said to her:
+
+"You've not been whipped for a very long time, and now you have
+become bold enough to interfere in affairs that are not your
+own."
+
+"Mishinka," she persisted, "I have had a frightful dream
+concerning you.  You had better let the moujiks go."
+
+"Yes," said he; "I perceive that you have gained so much flesh of
+late that you think you would not feel the whip.  Lookout!"
+
+Rudely thrusting his hot pipe against her cheek, Michael chased
+his wife from the room, after which he ordered his dinner.  After
+eating a hearty meal consisting of cabbage-soup, roast pig,
+meat-cake, pastry with milk, jelly, sweet cakes, and vodki, he
+called his woman cook to him and ordered her to be seated and
+sing songs, Simeonovitch accompanying her on the guitar.
+
+While the superintendent was thus enjoying himself to the fullest
+satisfaction in the musical society of his cook the elder
+returned, and, making a low bow to his superior, proceeded to
+give the desired information concerning the serfs.
+
+"Well," asked Michael, "did they plough?"
+
+"Yes," replied the elder; "they have accomplished about half the
+field."
+
+"Is there no fault to be found?"
+
+"Not that I could discover.  The work seems to be well done. 
+They are evidently afraid of you."
+
+"How is the soil?"
+
+"Very good.  It appears to be quite soft."
+
+"Well," said Simeonovitch, after a pause, "what did they say
+about me?  Cursed me, I suppose?"
+
+As the elder hesitated somewhat, Michael commanded him to speak
+and tell him the whole truth.  "Tell me all," said he; "I want to
+know their exact words.  If you tell me the truth I shall reward
+you; but if you conceal anything from me you will be punished. 
+See here, Catherine, pour out a glass of vodki to give him
+courage!"
+
+After drinking to the health of his superior, the elder said to
+himself: "It is not my fault if they do not praise him.  I shall
+tell him the truth."  Then turning suddenly to the superintendent
+he said:
+
+"They complain, Michael Simeonovitch! They complain bitterly."
+
+"But what did they say?" demanded Michael. "Tell me!"
+
+"Well, one thing they said was, 'He does not believe in God.'"
+
+Michael laughed.  "Who said that?" he asked.
+
+"It seemed to be their unanimous opinion. 'He has been overcome
+by the Evil One,' they said."
+
+"Very good," laughed the superintendent; "but tell me what each
+of them said.  What did Vasili say?"
+
+The elder did not wish to betray his people, but he had a certain
+grudge against Vasili, and he said:
+
+"He cursed you more than did any of the others."
+
+"But what did he say?"
+
+"It is awful to repeat it, sir.  Vasili said, 'He shall die like
+a dog, having no chance to repent!'"
+
+"Oh, the villain!" exclaimed Michael.  "He would kill me if he
+were not afraid.  All right, Vasili; we shall have an accounting
+with you. And Tishka--he called me a dog, I suppose?"
+
+"Well," said the elder, "they all spoke of you in anything but
+complimentary terms; but it is mean in me to repeat what they
+said."
+
+"Mean or not you must tell me, I say!"
+
+"Some of them declared that your back should be
+broken."
+
+Simeonovitch appeared to enjoy this immensely, for he laughed
+outright.  "We shall see whose back will be the first to be
+broken," said he. "Was that Tishka's opinion?  While I did not
+suppose they would say anything good about me, I did not expect
+such curses and threats. And Peter Mikhayeff--was that fool
+cursing me too?"
+
+"No; he did not curse you at all.  He appeared to be the only
+silent one among them.  Mikhayeff is a very wise moujik, and he
+surprises me very much.  At his actions all the other peasants
+seemed amazed."
+
+"What did he do?"
+
+"He did something remarkable.  He was diligently ploughing, and
+as I approached him I heard some one singing very sweetly. 
+Looking between the ploughshares, I observed a bright object
+shining."
+
+"Well, what was it?  Hurry up!"
+
+"It was a small, five-kopeck wax candle, burning brightly, and
+the wind was unable to blow it out.  Peter, wearing a new shirt,
+sang beautiful hymns as he ploughed, and no matter how he handled
+the implement the candle continued to burn.  In my presence he
+fixed the plough, shaking it violently, but the bright little
+object between the colters remained undisturbed."
+
+"And what did Mikhayeff say?"
+
+"He said nothing--except when, on seeing me, he gave me the
+holy-day salutation, after which he went on his way singing and
+ploughing as before.  I did not say anything to him, but, on
+approaching the other moujiks, I found that they were laughing
+and making sport of their silent companion.  'It is a great sin
+to plough on Easter Monday,' they said.  'You could not get
+absolution from your sin if you were to pray all your life.'"
+
+"And did Mikhayeff make no reply?"
+
+"He stood long enough to say: 'There should be peace on earth and
+good-will to men,' after which he resumed his ploughing and
+singing, the candle burning even more brightly than
+before."
+
+Simeonovitch had now ceased to ridicule, and, putting aside his
+guitar, his head dropped on his breast and he became lost in
+thought.  Presently he ordered the elder and cook to depart,
+after which Michael went behind a screen and threw himself upon
+the bed.  He was sighing and moaning, as if in great distress,
+when his wife came in and spoke kindly to him.  He refused to
+listen to her, exclaiming:
+
+"He has conquered me, and my end is near!"
+
+"Mishinka," said the woman, "arise and go to the moujiks in the
+field.  Let them go home, and everything will be all right. 
+Heretofore you have run far greater risks without any fear, but
+now you appear to be very much alarmed."
+
+"He has conquered me!" he repeated.  "I am lost!"
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded his wife, angrily.  "If you will go
+and do as I tell you there will be no danger.  Come, Mishinka,"
+she added, tenderly; "I shall have the saddle-horse brought for
+you at once."
+
+When the horse arrived the woman persuaded her husband to mount
+the animal, and to fulfil her request concerning the serfs.  When
+he reached the village a woman opened the gate for him to enter,
+and as he did so the inhabitants, seeing the brutal
+superintendent whom everybody feared, ran to hide themselves in
+their houses, gardens, and other secluded places.
+
+At length Michael reached the other gate, which he found closed
+also, and, being unable to open it himself while seated on his
+horse, he called loudly for assistance.  As no one responded to
+his shouts he dismounted and opened the gate, but as he was about
+to remount, and had one foot in the stirrup, the horse became
+frightened at some pigs and sprang suddenly to one side.  The
+superintendent fell across the fence and a very sharp picket
+pierced his stomach, when Michael fell unconscious to the ground.
+
+Toward the evening, when the serfs arrived at the village gate,
+their horses refused to enter.  On looking around, the peasants
+discovered the dead body of their superintendent lying face
+downward in a pool of blood, where he had fallen from the fence. 
+Peter Mikhayeff alone had sufficient courage to dismount and
+approach the prostrate form, his companions riding around the
+village and entering by way of the back yards.  Peter closed the
+dead man's eyes, after which he put the body in a wagon and took
+it home.
+
+When the nobleman learned of the fatal accident which had
+befallen his superintendent, and of the brutal treatment which he
+had meted out to those under him, he freed the serfs, exacting a
+small rent for the use of his land and the other agricultural
+opportunities.
+
+And thus the peasants clearly understood that the power of God is
+manifested not in evil, but in goodness.
+
+
+ 
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Kreutzer Sonata et al
+
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