Nijeradze, becoming animated.

"Well, isn't it all the same to you, prince? There was Tolpygin,
Ramses, a certain sub-professor--Yarchenko--Borya Sobashnikov, and
others ... I don't recall. We had been boat-riding the whole evening,
then dived into a publican's, and only after that, like swine, started
for the Yamkas. I, you know, am a very abstemious man. I only sat and
soaked up cognac, like a sponge, with a certain reporter I know. Well,
all the others fell from grace however. And so, toward morning, for
some reason or other, I went all to pieces. I got so sad and full of
pity from looking at these unhappy women. I also thought, now, of how
our sisters enjoy our regard, love, protection; how our mothers are
surrounded with reverent adoration. Just let some one say one rude word
to them, shove them, offend them; we are ready to chew his throat off!
Isn't that the truth?"

"M-m? ..." drawled out the Georgian, half questioningly, half
expectantly, and squinted his eyes to one side.

"Well, then I thought: why, now, any blackguard, any whippersnapper,
any shattered ancient can take any one of these women to himself for a
minute or for a night, as a momentary whim; and indifferently, one
superfluous time more--the thousand and first--profane and defile in
her that which is the most precious in a human being--love... Do you
understand--revile, trample it underfoot, pay for the visit and walk
away in peace, his hands in his pockets, whistling. But the most
horrible of all is that all this has come to be a habit with them; it's
all one to her, and it's all one to him. The feelings have dulled, the
soul has dimmed. That's so, isn't it? And yet, in every one of them
perishes both a splendid sister and a sainted mother. Eh? Isn't that
the truth?"

"N-na? ...." mumbled Nijeradze and again shifted his eyes to one side.

"And so I thought: wherefore words and superfluous exclamations! To the
devil with hypocritical speeches during conventions. To the devil with
abolition, regulation (suddenly, involuntarily, the recent words of the
reporter came to his mind), Magdalene asylums and all these
distributions of holy books in the establishments! Here, I'll up and
act as a really honest man, snatch a girl out of this slough, implant
her in real firm soil, calm her, encourage her, treat her kindly."

"H-hm!" grunted Nijeradze with a grin.

"Eh, prince! You always have salacious things on your mind. For you
understand that I'm not