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"There are three ways before her," he thought, "the canal, the

madhouse, or... at last to sink into depravity which obscures the

mind and turns the heart to stone."

The last idea was the most revolting, but he was a sceptic, he

was young, abstract, and therefore cruel, and so he could not

help believing that the last end was the most likely.

"But can that be true?" he cried to himself. "Can that creature

who has still preserved the purity of her spirit be consciously

drawn at last into that sink of filth and iniquity? Can the

process already have begun? Can it be that she has only been able

to bear it till now, because vice has begun to be less loathsome

to her? No, no, that cannot be!" he cried, as Sonia had just

before. "No, what has kept her from the canal till now is the

idea of sin and they, the children.... And if she has not gone

out of her mind... but who says she has not gone out of her mind?

Is she in her senses? Can one talk, can one reason as she does?

How can she sit on the edge of the abyss of loathsomeness into

which she is slipping and refuse to listen when she is told of

danger? Does she expect a miracle? No doubt she does. Doesn't

that all mean madness?"