Страница 785 из 2288

"I cannot be made unhappy by the fact that a contemptible woman

has committed a crime. I have only to find the best way out of

the difficult position in which she has placed me. And I shall

find it," he said to himself, frowning more and more. "I'm not

the first nor the last." And to say nothing of historical

instances dating from the "Fair Helen" of Menelaus, recently

revived in the memory of all, a whole list of contemporary

examples of husbands with unfaithful wives in the highest society

rose before Alexey Alexandrovitch's imagination. "Daryalov,

Poltavsky, Prince Karibanov, Count Paskudin, Dram.... Yes, even

Dram, such an honest, capable fellow ... Semyonov, Tchagin,

Sigonin," Alexey Alexandrovitch remembered.