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56 SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY
And uncle would begin to communicate to those
present the contents of the newspaper article which he
had just read, involuntarily, almost unconsciously,
adorning it, and filling it out, and deducing from it
such hazardous conclusions and results as the inventor
himself had, most assuredly, never dreamed of.
His narration would be followed by a heated
discussion. Mama and Aniuta usually went over
immediately to uncle’s side, and waxed enthusiastic
over the new discovery. The governess, in
accordance with the spirit of opposition which was
peculiar to her, almost as infallibly ranged herself against
him, and began vehemently to demonstrate the
inconsistency, and, occasionally, even the peccability, of the
theories advanced by uncle. The tutor sometimes
put in a word when it was a question purely of a
statement of facts, but wisely avoided direct share in
the dispute. As for papa, he turned himself into a
skeptical, scoffing critic, who sided with neither of
the antagonists, but confined himself to keeping a
sharp eye on both, and emphasizing all the weak
points in both camps.
These discussions sometimes assumed a very
warlike character, and by a sort of fatality they always
ended in the opponents suddenly leaping from
questions of a purely abstract character into the domain
of petty personal assaults.
The most obdurate opponents were always
Margarita Frantzovna and Aniuta, between whom a tacit
" Seven Years’ War " was in progress, interrupted only
by periods of temporary armed truce.
If uncle amazed us by the boldness of his
generalizations, the governess in turn distinguished herself
by no less talented applications. In the most abstract
scientific theories, which were apparently the furthest
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