Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction; Russia -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
Everything at this moment appeared to me so small, and of so little
consequence! I shut myself up in my chamber, and walked up and down
there alone, for a long time, not feeling disposed to do anything, to
think anything, and incapable of analyzing my own sensations. I imagined
the delight of the whole family, and what they would all say about the
person who had placed the money upon their window, and I began to regret
that I had not given it to them myself. I wondered what Sergius
Mikaïlovitch would have said, if he had known what I had done, and I was
delighted to think that he never would know it. And I was so seized with
joy, so filled with a sense of the imperfection in myself and in all,
yet so inclined to view with gentleness all these others, as well as
myself, that the thought of death offered itself to me as a vision of
bliss. I smiled, I prayed, I wept, and at this instant I suddenly loved
every creature in the world, and I loved myself with a strange ardor.
Searching my prayer-book, I read many passages from the Gospel, and all
that I read in this volume became more and more intelligible; the story
of that divine life, appeared to me more touching and simple, while the
depth of feeling and of thought revealed to me, in this reading, became
more terrible and impenetrable. And how clear and easy everything
seemed, when, on laying aside the book, I looked at my life and
meditated upon it. It seemed impossible not to live aright, and very
simple to love every one and to be loved by every one. Besides, every
one was good and gentle to me, even Sonia, whom I continued to teach,
and who had become totally different, who really made an effort to
understand, and to satisfy me, and give me no annoyance. What I was
trying to be to others, others were to me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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