And to gain simply that--what agonies, what toil!... One's whole life ruined!" Again she recalled what the young peasant woman had said, and again she was revolted at the thought; but she could not help admitting that there was a grain of brutal truth in the words.

"Is it far now, Mihail?" Darya Alexandrovna asked the counting house clerk, to turn her mind from thoughts that were frightening her.

"From this village, they say, it's five miles.

" The carriage drove along the village street and onto a bridge.

On the bridge was a crowd of peasant women with coils of ties for the sheaves on their shoulders, gaily and noisily chattering.