Chapter 6 - Page 2

that there now exist, at least so I have heard, pure young people
who feel and know that this is not a joke, but a serious matter. May God
come to their aid! But in my time there was not to be found one such in
a thousand.)

"And all know it, and pretend not to know it. In all the novels are
described down to the smallest details the feelings of the characters,
the lakes and brambles around which they walk; but, when it comes to
describing their GREAT love, not a word is breathed of what HE, the
interesting character, has previously done, not a word about
his frequenting of disreputable houses, or his association with
nursery-maids, cooks, and the wives of others.

"And if anything is said of these things, such IMPROPER novels are not
allowed in the hands of young girls. All men have the air of believing,
in presence of maidens, that these corrupt pleasures, in which EVERYBODY
takes part, do not exist, or exist only to a very small extent. They
pretend it so carefully that they succeed in convincing themselves of
it. As for the poor young girls, they believe it quite seriously, just
as my poor wife believed it.

"I remember that, being already engaged, I showed her my 'memoirs,' from
which she could learn more or less of my past, and especially my last
liaison which she might perhaps have discovered through the gossip of
some third party. It was for this last reason, for that matter, that I
felt the necessity of communicating these memoirs to her. I can still
see her fright, her despair, her bewilderment, when she had learned and
understood it. She was on the point of breaking the engagement. What a
lucky thing it would have been for both of us!"

Posdnicheff was silent for a moment, and then resumed:--

"After all, no! It is better that things happened as they did, better!"
he cried. "It was a good thing for me. Besides, it makes no difference.
I was saying that in these cases it is the poor young girls who are
deceived. As for the mothers, the mothers especially, informed by their
husbands, they know all, and, while pretending to believe in the purity
of the young man, they act as if they did not believe in it.

"They know what bait must be held out to people for themselves and their
daughters. We men sin through ignorance, and a determination not to
learn. As for the women, they know very well that the noblest and most
poetic love, as we call it, depends, not on moral qualities, but on the
physical intimacy, and also on the manner of doing the hair, and the
color and shape.

"Ask an experienced coquette, who has undertaken to seduce a man, which
she would prefer,--to be convicted, in presence of the man whom she is
engaged in