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RUDIN which they are never off, except, perhaps, when they’re asleep.’

‘What three hobbies are those?’

‘Reproof, reproach, recrimination.’

‘Do you know, African Semenitch,’ began Darya Mihailovna, ‘you cannot be so bitter against women for nothing. Some woman or other must have’

‘Done me an injury, you mean?’ Pigasov interrupted.

Darya Mihailovna was rather embarrassed; she remembered Pigasov’s unlucky marriage, and only nodded.

‘One woman certainly did me an injury,’ said Pigasov, ‘though she was a good, very good’

‘Who was that?’

‘My mother,’ said Pigasov, dropping his voice.

‘Your mother? What injury could she have done you?’

‘She brought me into the world.’

Darya Mihailovna frowned.

‘Our conversation,’ she said, ‘seems to have taken a gloomy turn. Constantin, play us Thalberg’s new étude. I daresay the music will 31