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196
SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY
her to adopt his view of the matter, he refused her his
confidence, and carried out his ideas alone. This was
most painful to Sönya, and quite unbearable to a person
of her character.
After having once decided to enter into full union
with her husband, she had done everything to deepen
and intensify their relations to each other. It was
her nature to give herself up with passionate devotion
to that which, for the time being, was foremost in her
life. She also drew marked lines between what was
important and what was unimportant; and this trait
in her character made her superior to others of her sex,
for she never neglected primary for secondary duties,
and never took a narrow view of life. She could not
put up with half-heartedness where feelings were
concerned. She would sacrifice everything to secure a
deep, whole-hearted union. She strove to the utmost
to rescue her husband from the danger she foresaw.
One of her friends describes her struggles thus:
" Sönya tried to interest Kovalévsky again in science.
She studied geology, helped to prepare his lectures, and
tried to make home life delightful to him, so that he
might recover his mental balance. But it was of no
avail. My notion is that Kovalévsky was at that time
not in a normal state of mind. His nerves had been
overwrought, and he could not recover himself."
The adventurer, of course, could wish for nothing
better than to foster the misunderstanding that now
arose between husband and wife. He made Sönya
believe that Kovalévsky’s reserve and inaccessibility
were due to other causes, and that she had good cause
for jealousy.
Through Sönya’s own " Recollections of Childhood "
we know that, as a child of ten, she already showed
signs of being possessed by consuming jealousy. To
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