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NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH [interrupting] But all this weight falls on you,
because you do not wish to live as I proposed.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. But that was impossible! Ask anyone! It was impossible to
let the children grow up illiterate, as you wished them to do, and for
me to do the washing and cooking.
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. I never wanted that!
MARY IVÁNOVNA. Well, anyhow it was something of that kind! No, you are a
Christian, you wish to do good, and you say you love men; then why do
you torture the woman who has devoted her whole life to you?
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. How do I torture you? I love you, but ...
MARY IVÁNOVNA. But is it not torturing me to leave me and to go away?
What will everybody say? One of two things, either that I am a bad
woman, or that you are mad.
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Well, let us say I am mad; but I can't live like
this.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. But what is there so terrible in it, even if once in a
winter (and only once, because I feared you would not like it) I do give
a party--and even then a very simple one, only ask Mánya and Barbara
Vasílyevna! Everybody said I could not do less--and that it was
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