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"Admitting that a certain quite irrational ridicule falls to the

lot of these men, yet I never saw anything but a misfortune in

it, and always felt sympathy for it," Alexey Alexandrovitch said

to himself, though indeed this was not the fact, and he had never

felt sympathy for misfortunes of that kind, but the more

frequently he had heard of instances of unfaithful wives

betraying their husbands, the more highly he had thought of

himself. "It is a misfortune which may befall anyone. And this

misfortune has befallen me. The only thing to be done is to make

the best of the position."

And he began passing in review the methods of proceeding of men

who had been in the same position that he was in.

"Daryalov fought a duel...."