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A BIOGRAPHY
163
and to discipline, this same unknown and mysterious
natural force.
Aniuta and one of her friends, who was also full
of the desire to study abroad, and likewise prevented
from doing so by her parents, now came to a definite
determination. Either of them—it mattered little
which—was to make one of these ideal and platonic
marriages before alluded to. They hoped that this
arrangement would give both of them their liberty.
They thought, if one of them were married, the other
woidd obtain permission from her parents to
accompany her friend abroad. Such a journey would no
longer appear in an objectionable light, but might be
regarded as a mere pleasure-trip.
Sönya was to accompany her sister. She was so
entirely Aniuta’s shadow that it was utterly impossible
to imagine the one without the other. The plan once
made, the first step was to find the right man to help
them to carry it out.
Aniuta and her friend Inez reviewed their circle of
acquaintance, and their choice fell on a young professor
at the University, whom they knew only slightly, but of
whose honesty and devotion to the common cause they
were convinced. So, one fine day, the three girls—
Sönya, as usual, bringing up the rear—went to see
the professor in his own house. He was seated at his
writing-table when the servant introduced the three
young ladies, whose presence there somewhat
astonished him, for they did not belong to the circle of his
more intimate lady-friends. He rose politely and asked
them to be seated.
Down they all three sat in a row on the sofa, and a
moment’s awkward pause followed.
The professor sat in his rocking-chair opposite them,
and looked first at one and then at the other. At the
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