"When awoman loves you she's not satisfied until she possesses your soul. Becauseshe's weak, she has a rage for domination, and nothing less will satisfy her.She has a small mind, and she resents the abstract which she is unable tograsp. She is occupied with material things, and she is jealous of the ideal.The soul of man wanders through the uttermost regions of the universe, and sheseeks to imprison it in the circle of her account-book. Do you remember mywife? I saw Blanche little by little trying all her tricks. With infinitepatience she prepared to snare me and bind me. She wanted to bring me down toher level; she cared nothing for me, she only wanted me to be hers. She waswilling to do everything in the world for me except the one thing I wanted: toleave me alone. "

I was silentfor a while.

"What didyou expect her to do when you left her?"

"She couldhave gone back to Stroeve, " he said irritably. "He was ready to takeher. "

"You'reinhuman, " I answered. "It's as useless to talk to you about thesethings as to describe colours to a man who was born blind. "

He stopped infront of my chair, and stood looking down at me with an expression in which Iread a contemptuous amazement.

"Do youreally care a twopenny damn if Blanche Stroeve is alive or dead?"

I thought overhis question, for I wanted to answer it truthfully, at all events to my soul.

“要是一个女人爱上了你，除非连你的灵魂也叫她占有了，她是不会感到满足的。因为女人是软弱的，所以她们具有非常强烈的统治欲，不把你完全控制在手就不甘心。女人的心胸狭窄，对那些她理解不了的抽象东西非常反感。她们满脑子想的都是物质的东西，所以对于精神和理想非常妒忌。男人的灵魂在宇宙的最遥远的地方邀游，女人却想把它禁锢在家庭收支的账簿里。你还记得我的妻子吗？我发觉勃朗什一点一点地施展起我妻子的那些小把戏来。她以无限的耐心准备把我网罗住，捆住我的手脚。她要把我拉到她那个水平上；她对我这个人一点也不关心，唯一想的是叫我依附于她。为了我，世界上任何事情她都愿意做，只有一件事除外：不来打搅我。”

我沉默了一会儿。

“你离开她以后想到她要做什么吗？”

“她满可以回到施特略夫身边去的，”他气冲冲地说，“施特略夫巴不得她回去的。”

“你不通人性，”我回答说。“同你谈这些事一点用也没有，就象跟瞎子形容颜色一样。”

他在我的椅子前边站住，低下头来望着我；我看出来他脸上的表情满含轻蔑，又充满了惊诧。

“勃朗什·施特略夫活着也好，死了也好，难道你真的那么关心吗？”

我想了想他提出的这个问题，因为我想真实地回答，无论如何一定要是我的真实思想。