Pagina 884 de 1294

Even the poorest and most broken-spirited people are sometimes

liable to these paroxysms of pride and vanity which take the form

of an irresistible nervous craving. And Katerina Ivanovna was not

broken-spirited; she might have been killed by circumstance, but

her spirit could not have been broken, that is, she could not

have been intimidated, her will could not be crushed. Moreover

Sonia had said with good reason that her mind was unhinged. She

could not be said to be insane, but for a year past she had been

so harassed that her mind might well be overstrained. The later

stages of consumption are apt, doctors tell us, to affect the

intellect.