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110
SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY
screamed to her adjutants in French, ’Well,
gentlemen, I’m broke! The game’s up!’ Then in Russian,
’Let ’s go and drown our grief in champagne!’
That’s what writing brings a woman to."
Naturally after this my sister was in no haste to
boast of her success. But this mystery in which she
was obliged to shroud her first appearance in the
literary career lent an added charm to it. I
remember her raptures when a few weeks later the number
of " The Epoch" reached her, and we read in the
table of contents, "The Dream," a novel by Yu. O-ff.
(Yüry Obryéloff was the pseudonym which Aniuta
had selected, because of course she could not publish
over her own name.)
Naturally Aniuta had already read me her story
from the rough copy which she had preserved. But
now in the pages of the journal the story seemed to
me entirely new and wonderfully beautiful.
The contents of the story were as follows: The
heroine, Lilenka, lives among old people who have been
hardly used by life, and who have hidden themselves
in a quiet nook in order to seek rest and forgetfulness.
They endeavor to instil into Lilenka the same fear of
life and its turmoils. But that unknown life, of which
she hears only confused rumors, like the distant
dashing of waves of the sea concealed behind mountains,
beckons her on and draws her to it. She believes
that there is a place
" Where people live more cheerfully,
Alive with life ; and spin no spiders’ webs."
But how is she to reach such people ?
Imperceptibly to herself Lilenka has become imbued with the
prejudices of the circle in which she lives. Almost
at every step the question unconsciously presents
itself : Is it proper for a young lady to act thus or not?
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