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CHAPTER XII

discussion about the emancipation of women led to talk about the inequality of rights in marriage, and this was a ticklish subject to speak about in the presence of the ladies. Pestsof during the dinner several times touched on this question, but Sergyeï Ivanovitch and Stepan Arkadyevitch warily diverted him from it. But as soon as dinner was over and the ladies had retired, Pestsof addressed Alekseï Aleksandrovitch and attempted to explain the chief cause of this inequality. The inequality of rights between husband and wife in marriage depended, in his opinion, on the fact that the infidelity of a wife and that of a husband was unequally punished, both by law and by public opinion.

Stepan Arkadyevitch hastened over to Alekseï Aleksandrovitch and offered him a cigar.

"No, I do not smoke," replied Karenin, calmly; and as if to prove that he was not afraid of this conversation, he turned toward Pestsof with his icy smile:—

"I imagine that such a view is based on the very nature of things," said he, and he started to go to the drawing-room; but here Turovtsuin suddenly spoke up, addressing Alekseï Aleksandrovitch.

"Have you heard the story about Priatchnikof?" he asked. He was animated by the champagne, and had been impatiently waiting for a chance to break a silence which weighed heavily on him. "Vasia Priatchnikof?" he repeated, with a good-natured smile on his thick lips, red and moist, and he addressed Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, as the most important guest. "I was told this morning that he fought a duel at Tver, with Kvitsky, and killed him."

As it always seems as if a sore spot were peculiarly liable to be hit, so now Stepan Arkadyevitch thought the conversation was fated every moment to touch Alekseï Aleksandrovitch on the sore spot. He was on the point of going to his brother-in-law's assistance; but Alekseï Aleksandrovitch asked, with curiosity:—