t I know absolutely nothing. This
is above my reason... above conscience..."

Jennie crossed her fingers and nervously cracked them.

"And I, too, don't know...Therefore, that which I thought--is not the
truth. Therefore, there is but one thing left me...This thought came
into my head this morning..."

"Don't, don't do it, Jennechka! ... Jennie! ..." Platonov quickly
interrupted her.

"There's one thing: to hang myself..."

"No, no, Jennie, only not that! ... If there were other circumstances,
unsurmountable, I would, believe me, tell you boldly: well, it's no
use, Jennie; it's time to close up shop... But what you need isn't that
at all... If you wish, I can suggest one way out to you, no less
malicious and merciless; but which, perhaps, will satiate your wrath a
hundredfold..."

"What's that?" asked Jennie, wearily, as though suddenly wilted after
her flare-up.

"Well, this is it ... You're still young, and I'll tell you the truth,
you are very handsome; that is, you can be, if you only want to,
unusually stunning ... That's even more than beauty. But you've never
yet known the bounds and the power of your appearance; and, mainly, you
don't know to what a degree such natures as yours are bewitching, and
how mightily they enchain men to them, and make out of them more than
slaves and brutes ... You are proud, you are brave, you are
independent, you are a clever woman. I know--you have read a great
deal, let's presuppose even trashy books, but still you have read, you
have an entirely different speech from the others. With a successful
turn of life, you can cure yourself, you can get out of these 'Yamkas,'
these 'Little Ditches,' into freedom. You have only to stir a finger,
in order to see at your feet hundreds of men; submissive, ready for
your sake for vileness, for theft, for embezzlement ... Lord it over
them with tight reins, with a cruel whip in your hands! ... Ruin them,
make them go out of their minds, as long as your desire and energy hold
out! ... Look, my dear Jennie, who manages life now if not women!
Yesterday's chambermaid, laundress, chorus girl goes through estates
worth millions, the way a country-woman of Tver cracks sunflower seeds.
A woman scarcely able to sign her name, at times affects the destiny of
an entire kingdom through a man. Hereditary princes marry the
street-walkers, the kept mistresses of yesterday... Jennechka, there is
the scope for your unbridled vengeance; while I will admi