Page:The Kiss and Other Stories by Anton Tchekhoff, 1908.pdf/240

 footsteps; every one who entered was warned to speak as softly and as little as possible, and that he should say nothing which might affect unpleasantly the imagination or nerves. And in your own room you gave no man your hand or asked him to sit, just as now you have neither given me your hand nor asked me to sit. . .”

“Please sit down if you will,” said the princess, extending her hand, with a smile. “You should not be angry over such trifles.”

“But am I angry?” laughed the doctor. He took off his hat, waved it, and continued hotly. “I tell you frankly I have long been waiting a chance to tell you everything — everything. . . . That is, I want to say that you look on your fellow-creatures much as Napoleon, who regarded them as food for cannon, with this difference: that Napoleon at least had ideas, but you — except aversion — have nothing.”

“I have aversion to men?” smiled the princess, shrugging her shoulders in surprise. “I?”

“Yes; you! You want facts.? Listen! In Mikhailtsevo living on alms ai'e three of your former cooks, who lost their sight in your kitchens from the heat. Every one healthy, strong, and handsome on your tens of thousands of acres is taken by you or your friends as footman, lackey, coachman. All these two-legged creatures are brought up in. . . lackeyism, overfed, coarsened, robbed of the image of God. . . . Young