r his drunkenness and incapacity. He was
conscious of this and did not pardon it in her. Her musical faculties
showed themselves at an early age; her father repressed them,
recognising painting as the sole art,--wherein he himself had had so
little success, but which had nourished him and his family. Clara had
loved her mother ... in a careless way, as she would have loved a nurse;
she worshipped her sister, although she squabbled with her, and bit
her.... It is true that afterward she had been wont to go down on her
knees before her and kiss the bitten places. She was all fire, all
passion, and all contradiction: vengeful and kind-hearted, magnanimous
and rancorous; "she believed in Fate, and did not believe in God" (these
words Anna whispered with terror); she loved everything that was
beautiful, and dressed herself at haphazard; she could not endure to
have young men pay court to her, but in books she read only those pages
where love was the theme; she did not care to please, she did not like
petting and never forgot caresses as she never forgot offences; she was
afraid of death, and she had killed herself! She had been wont to say
sometimes, "I do not meet the sort of man I want--and the others I will
not have!"--"Well, and what if you should meet the right sort?" Anna had
asked her.--"If I do ... I shall take him."--"But what if he will not
give himself?"--"Well, then ... I will make an end of myself. It will
mean that I am good for nothing."

Clara's father ... (he sometimes asked his wife when he was drunk: "Who
was the father of that black-visaged little devil of thine?--I was
not!")--Clara's father, in the endeavour to get her off his hands as
promptly as possible, undertook to betroth her to a wealthy young
merchant, a very stupid fellow,--one of the "cultured" sort. Two weeks
before the wedding (she was only sixteen years of age), she walked up to
her betrothed, folded her arms, and drumming with her fingers on her
elbows (her favourite pose), she suddenly dealt him a blow, bang! on his
rosy cheek with her big, strong hand! He sprang to his feet, and merely
gasped,--it must be stated that he was dead in love with her.... He
asked: "What is that for?" She laughed and left the room.--"I was
present in the room," narrated Anna, "and was a witness. I ran after her
and said to her: 'Good gracious, Katya, why didst thou do that?'--But
she answered me: 'If he were a real man he would have thrashed me, but
as it is,