Read "The Kreutzer Sonata" by Leo Tolstoy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
As soon as the old man had gone several voices were raised.
"A daddy of the old style! " remarked the clerk.
"A living Domostróy! "275 said the lady. "What barbarous views of women and marriage!"
"Yes, we are far from the European understanding of marriage," said the lawyer.276
"The chief thing such people do not understand," continued the lady, "is that marriage without love is not marriage; that love sanctifies marriage, and that real marriage is only such as is sanctified by love."
The clerk listened smilingly, trying to store up for future use all he could of the clever conversation.
In the midst of the lady's remarks we heard, behind me, a sound like that of a broken laugh or sob; and on turning round we saw my neighbor, the lonely grey-haired man with the glittering eyes, who had approached unnoticed during our conversation, which evidently interested him. He stood with his arms on the back of the seat, evidently much excited; his face was red and a muscle twitched in his cheek.
"What kind of love. love. is it that sanctifies marriage? " he asked hesitatingly.
Noticing the speaker's agitation, the lady tried to answer him as gently and fully as possible.
"True love. When such love exists between a man and a woman, then marriage is possible," she said.
"Yes, but how is one to understand what is meant by ‘true love'? " said the gentleman with the glittering eyes timidly and with an awkward smile.
"Everybody knows what love is," replied the lady, evidently wishing to break off her conversation with him.
"But I don't," said the man. "You must define what you understand."
"Why? It's very simple," she said, but stopped to consider. "Love? Love is an exclusive preference for one above everybody else," said the lady.
"Preference for how long? A month, two days, or half an hour? " said the grey-haired man and began to laugh.
"Excuse me, we are evidently not speaking of the same thing."
"Oh, yes! Exactly the same."
"She means," interposed the lawyer, pointing to the lady, "that in the first place marriage must be the outcome of attachment -- or love, if you please -- and only where that exists is marriage sacred, so to speak. Secondly, that marriage when not based on natural attachment -- love, if you prefer the word -- lacks the element that makes it morally binding. Do I understand you rightly? " He added, addressing the lady.
The lady indicated her approval of his explanation by a nod of her head.
"It follows. " the lawyer continued -- but the nervous man whose eyes now glowed as if aflame and who had evidently restrained himself with difficulty, began without letting the lawyer finish: "Yes, I mean exactly the same thing, a preference for one person over everybody else, and I am only asking: a preference for how long?"