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PRINCE ABRÉZKOV. Please do! Believe me, my chief reason for coming to
you was my desire to understand the situation fully.... I understand
you. I understand that the shadow, as you so well express it, may have
been ...
FÉDYA. Yes, it was; and that perhaps is why I could not find
satisfaction in the family life she provided for me, but was always
seeking something, and being carried away. However, that sounds like
excusing myself. I don't want to, and can't, excuse myself. I was (I say
with assurance, was) a bad husband. I say was, because in my
consciousness I am not, and have long not been, her husband. I consider
her perfectly free. So there you have my answer to your question.
PRINCE ABRÉZKOV. Yes, but you know Victor's family, and himself too. His
relation to Elisabeth Andréyevna is, and has been all through, most
respectful and distant. He assisted her when she was in trouble ...
FÉDYA. Yes, I by my dissipation helped to draw them together. What's to
be done? It had to be so!
PRINCE ABRÉZKOV. You know the strictly Orthodox convictions of that
family. Having myself a broader outlook on things, I do not share them;
but I respect and understand them. I understand that for him, and
especially for his mother, union with a woman without a Church marriage
is unthinkable.
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