"'Tell me, please, Kisotchka,' I went on, 'what is the matter with
all the fair sex here. What has happened to them? In old days they
were all so moral and virtuous, and now, upon my word, if one asks
about anyone, one is told such things that one is quite shocked at
human nature. . . . One young lady has eloped with an officer;
another has run away and carried off a high-school boy with her;
another--a married woman--has run away from her husband with
an actor; a fourth has left her husband and gone off with an officer,
and so on and so on. It's a regular epidemic! If it goes on like
this there won't be a girl or a young woman left in your town!'

"I spoke in a vulgar, playful tone. If Kisotchka had laughed in
response I should have gone on in this style: 'You had better look
out, Kisotchka, or some officer or actor will be carrying you off!'
She would have dropped her eyes and said: 'As though anyone would
care to carry me off; there are plenty younger and better looking
. . . .' And I should have said: 'Nonsense, Kisotchka--I for one
should be delighted!' And so on in that style, and it would all
have gone swimmingly. But Kisotchka did not laugh in response; on
the contrary, she looked grave and sighed.

"'All you have been told is true,' she said. 'My cousin Sonya ran
away from her husband with an actor. Of course, it is wrong. . . .
Everyone ought to bear the lot that fate has laid on him, but I do
not condemn them or blame them. . . . Circumstances are sometimes
too strong for anyone!'

"'That is so, Kisotchka, but what circumstances can produce a
regular epidemic?'