Short Fiction by Leo Tolstoy (book reader for pc TXT) 📕

and more often in Russia. Noticing that his was the only voice audible, he stopped his discourse and turned to the old man.

“Those things did not happen in the old days, did they?” he said, smiling pleasantly.

The old man was about to reply, but the train moved and he took off his cap, crossed himself, and whispered a prayer. The lawyer turned away his eyes and waited politely. Having finished his prayer and crossed himself three times the old man set his cap straight, pulled it well down over his forehead, changed his position, and began to speak.

“They used to happen even then, sir, but less often,” he said. “As times are now they can’t help happening. People have got too educated.”

The train moved faster and faster and jolted over the joints of the rails, making it difficult to hear, but being interested I moved nearer. The nervous man with the glittering eyes opposite me, evidently also interested, listened without changing his place.

“What is wrong with education?” said the lady, with a scarcely perceptible smile. “Surely it can’t be better to marry as they used to in the old days when the bride and bridegroom did not even see one another before the wedding,” she continued, answering not what her interlocutor had said but what she thought he would say, in the way many ladies have. “Without knowing whether they loved, or whether they could love, they married just anybody, and were wretched all their lives. And you think that this was better?” she said, evidently addressing me and the lawyer chiefly and least of all the old man with whom she was talking.

“They’ve got so very educated,” the tradesman reiterated, looking contemptuously at the lady and leaving her question unanswered.

“It would be interesting to know how you explain the connection between education and matrimonial discord,” said the lawyer, with a scarcely perceptible smile.

The tradesman was about to speak, but the lady interrupted him.

“No,” she said, “those times have passed.” But the lawyer stopped her.

“Yes, but allow the gentleman to express his views.”

“Foolishness comes from education,” the old man said categorically.

“They make people who don’t love one another marry, and then wonder that they live in discord,” the lady hastened to say, turning to look at the lawyer, at me, and even at the clerk, who had got up and, leaning on the back of the seat, was smilingly listening to the conversation. “It’s only animals, you know, that can be paired off as their master likes; but human beings have their own inclinations and attachments,” said the lady, with an evident desire to annoy the tradesman.

“You should not talk like that, madam,” said the old man, “animals are cattle, but human beings have a law given them.”

“Yes, but how is one to live with a man when there is no love?” the lady again hastened to express her argument, which had probably seemed very new to her.

“They used not to go into that,” said the old man in an impressive tone. “It is only now that all this has sprung up. The least thing makes them say: ‘I will leave you!’ The fashion has spread even to the peasants. ‘Here you are!’ she says. ‘Here, take your shirts and trousers and I will go with Vánka; his head is curlier than yours.’ What can you say? the first thing that should be required of a woman is fear!”

The clerk glanced at the lawyer, at the lady, and at me, apparently suppressing a smile and prepared to ridicule or to approve of the tradesman’s words according to the reception they met with.

“Fear of what?” asked the lady.

“Why this: Let her fear her husband! That fear!”

“Oh, the time for that, sir, has passed,” said the lady with a certain viciousness.

“No, madam, that time cannot pass. As she, Eve, was made from the rib of a man, so it will remain to the end of time,” said the old man, jerking his head with such sternness and such a victorious look that the clerk at once concluded that victory was on his side, and laughed loudly.

“Ah yes, that’s the way you men argue,” said the lady unyieldingly, and turned to us. “You have given yourselves freedom but want to shut women up in a tower.274 You no doubt permit yourselves everything.”

“No one is permitting anything, but a man does not bring offspring into the home; while a woman⁠—a wife⁠—is a leaky vessel,” the tradesman continued insistently. His tone was so impressive that it evidently vanquished his hearers, and even the lady felt crushed but still did not give in.

“Yes, but I think you will agree that a woman is a human being and has feelings as a man has. What is she to do then, if she does not love her husband?”

“Does not love!” said the tradesman severely, moving his brows and lips. “She’ll love, no fear!” this unexpected argument particularly pleased the clerk, and he emitted a sound of approval.

“Oh, no, she won’t!” the lady began. “And when there is no love you can’t enforce it.”

“Well, and supposing the wife is unfaithful, what then?” asked the lawyer.

“That is not admissible,” said the old man. “One has to see to that.”

“But if it happens, what then? You know it does occur.”

“It happens among some, but not among us,” said the old man.

All were silent. The clerk moved, came still nearer, and, evidently unwilling to be behind hand, began with a smile.

“Yes, a young fellow of ours had a scandal. It was a difficult case to deal with. It too was a case of a woman who was a bad lot. She began to play the devil, and the young fellow is respectable and cultured. At first it was with one of the office clerks. The husband tried to persuade her with kindness. She would not stop, but played all sorts of dirty tricks. Then she began to steal his money. He beat her, but she only grew worse. Carried