If they took away my gun, I used to go out with the fishing-
hook, if they took the hook I caught things with my hands. And I
went in for horse-dealing too, I used to go to the fairs when I had
the money, and you know that if a peasant goes in for being a
sportsman, or a horse-dealer, it's good-bye to the plough. Once
the spirit of freedom has taken a man you will never root it out
of him. In the same way, if a gentleman goes in for being an ac-
tor or for any other art, he will never make an official or a land-
owner. You are a woman, and you do not understand, but one
must understand that."
"I understand, Yegor Vlassitch."
"You don't understand if you are going to cry. . . ."
"I . . . I'm not crying," said Pelagea, turning away. "It's a sin,
Yegor Vlassitch! You might stay a day with luckless me, anyway.
It's twelve years since I was married to you, and . . . and . . . there
has never once been love between us! . . . I . . . I am not crying."
"Love . . ." muttered Yegor, scratching his hand. "There can't
be any love. It's only in name we are husband and wife; we
aren't really. In your eyes I am a wild man, and in mine you are
a simple peasant woman with no understanding. Are we well
matched? I am a free, pampered, profligate man, while you are a
working woman, going in bark shoes and never straightening
your back. The way I think of myself is that I am the foremost
man in every kind of sport, and you look at me with pity. . . . Is
that being well matched?"
"But we are married, you know, Yegor Vlassitch," sobbed Pel-
agea.
"Not married of our free will. . . . Have you forgotten? You
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