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RUDIN makes not four, but five, or three and a half; but a woman will say that twice two makes a wax candle.’

‘I fancy I’ve heard you say that before. But allow me to ask what connection had your idea of the three kinds of egoists with the music you have just been hearing?’

‘None at all, but I did not listen to the music.’

‘Well, “incurable I see you are, and that is all about it,”’ answered Darya Mihailovna, slightly altering Griboyedov’s line. ‘What do you like, since you don’t care for music? Literature?’

‘I like literature, only not our contemporary literature.’

‘Why?’

‘I’ll tell you why. I crossed the Oka lately in a ferry boat with a gentleman. The ferry got fixed in a narrow place; they had to drag the carriages ashore by hand. This gentleman had a very heavy coach. While the ferrymen were straining themselves to drag the coach on to the bank, the gentleman groaned so, standing in the ferry, that one felt quite sorry for him. Well, I thought, here’s a fresh illustration of the system of division of labour! That’s just like 33