The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories


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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  
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Quick Jump
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