Do you feel this in you? The drift of what I say is
that we all know what PRINCESS MARYA ALEXEVNA
[20] verdict about your marriage would be:
that if young people marry without a sufficient fortune, it means
children, poverty, getting tired of each other in a year or two; in
ten years, quarrels, want--hell. And in all this PRINCESS
MARYA ALEXEVNA is perfectly right and plays the
true prophet, unless these young people who are getting married
have another purpose, their one and only one, unknown to
PRINCESS MARYA ALEXEVNA, and that not a
brainish purpose, not one recognized by the intellect, but one
that gives life its color and the attainment of which is more
moving than any other. If you have this, good; marry at once, and
give the lie to PRINCESS MARYA ALEXEVNA. If
not, it is a hundred to one that your marriage will lead to nothing
but misery. I am speaking to you from the bottom of my heart.
Receive my words into the bottom of yours, and weigh them well.
Besides love for you as a son, I have love for you also as a man
standing at the cross-ways. I kiss you and Lyolya and
Noletchka and Seryozha, if he is back. We are all
alive and well.
[20] My father took Griboyehof's PRINCESS
MARYA ALEXEVNA as a type. The allusion here is
to the last words of Griboyehof's famous comedy, "The
Misfortune of Cleverness," "What will PRINCESS MARYA
ALEXEVNA say?"
The following letter belongs to the same period:
Your letter to Tanya has arrived, my dear friend
Ilya, and I see that you are still advancing toward that
purpose which you set up for yourself; and I want to write to you
and to her--for no doubt you tell her everything--what I think
about it.
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