“A vile thing!” he went on, “A vile thing! My words amaze you. Yet why? The question is one that neither you nor I can ever rightly answer. Crime! What is a crime? If a mother’s life is in danger when giving birth to a child, and that living child, to save its mother, is destroyed that is not a crime, but an unfortunate necessity! But to suppress something that does not yet exist, that is called a crime, a horrible deed. Yes, a horrible deed, even though the mother’s life, and, what is more, her happiness, depends upon it! Why must it be so? Nobody knows, but everybody loudly maintains that view, crying, ‘Bravo!’” Sanine laughed sarcastically. “Oh! you men, you men! Men create for themselves phantoms, shadows, illusions, and are the first to suffer by them. But they all exclaim, ‘Oh! Man is a masterpiece, noblest of all; man is the crown, the King of creation;’ but a king that has never yet reigned, a suffering king that quakes at his own shadow.” For a moment, Sanine paused. “After all, that is not the main point. You say that it is a vile thing. I don’t know; perhaps it is. If Novikoff were to hear of your trouble, it would grieve him terribly; in fact, he might shoot himself, but yet he would love you, just the same. In that case, the blame would be his. But if he were a really intelligent man, he would not attach the slightest importance to the fact that you had already (excuse the expression!) slept with somebody else. Neither your body nor your soul have suffered thereby. Good Lord! Why, he might marry a widow himself, for instance! Therefore it is not that which prevents him, but the confused notions with which his head is filled. And, as regards yourself, if it were only possible for human beings to love once in their lives, then, a second attempt to do so would certainly prove futile and unpleasant. But this is not so. To fall in love, or to be loved, is just as delightful and desirable. You will get to love Novikoff, and, if you don’t, well, we’ll travel together, my Lidotschka; one can live, can’t one, anywhere, after all?” Lida sighed and strove to overcome her final scruples. “Perhaps … everything will come right again,” she murmured. “Novikoff… he’s so good and kind … nice-looking, too, isn’t he? Yes … no… I don’t know what to say.” “If you had drowned yourself, what then? The powers of good and evil would have neither gained nor lost thereby. Your corpse, bloated, disfigured, and covered with slime, would have been dragged from the river, and buried. That would have been all!” Lida had a lurid vision of greenish, turbid water with slimy, trailing weeds and gruesome bubbles floating round her. “No, no, never!” she thought, turning pale. “I would rather bear all the shame of it … and Novikoff … everything … anything but that.” “Ah! look how scared you are!” said Sanine, laughing. Lida smiled through her tears, and her very smile consoled her. “Whatever happens, I mean to live!” she said with passionate energy.