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"That's another slander," he yelled. "It was not so at all! That

was all Katerina Ivanovna's invention, for she did not

understand! And I never made love to Sofya Semyonovna! I was

simply developing her, entirely disinterestedly, trying to rouse

her to protest.... All I wanted was her protest and Sofya

Semyonovna could not have remained here anyway!"

"Have you asked her to join your community?"

"You keep on laughing and very inappropriately, allow me to tell

you. You don't understand! There is no such role in a community.

The community is established that there should be no such roles.

In a community, such a role is essentially transformed and what

is stupid here is sensible there, what, under present conditions,

is unnatural becomes perfectly natural in the community. It all

depends on the environment. It's all the environment and man

himself is nothing. And I am on good terms with Sofya Semyonovna

to this day, which is a proof that she never regarded me as

having wronged her. I am trying now to attract her to the

community, but on quite, quite a different footing. What are you

laughing at? We are trying to establish a community of our own, a

special one, on a broader basis. We have gone further in our

convictions. We reject more! And meanwhile I'm still developing

Sofya Semyonovna. She has a beautiful, beautiful character!"