maria nikolayevna

quotes from the torrents of spring by ivan turgenev, translated by david magarshack

"'do you want to know what i like best of all?'
'freedom,' prompted sanin.
maria nikolayevna laid her hand on his hand.
'yes, my dear sir,' she said, and there was a peculiar note in her voice, a note of some unmistakable sincerity and gravity, 'freedom more than anything else and before everything else. and don't think i'm boasting of this - there's nothing praiseworthy about it - only it is so and always will be so with me to the end of my days.'"

"the play went on for over an hour, but maria nikolayevna and sanin soon stopped looking at the stage. they had started a conversation again and it, the conversation, that is, went on on the same lines as before; only this time sanin was less silent. inwardly he was angry with himself and with maria nikolayevna; he tried to prove to her the utter superficiality of her 'theory', as though she were interested in theories! he began arguing with her, which she was secretly very glad of: if he argued, then he was giving in or would be giving in. he had taken the bait, he was yielding, he was no longer shy of her! she raised objections, laughed, agreed with him, pondered, attacked. . . and meanwhile his face and her face came closer together and his eyes no longer turned away from hers. those eyes of her seemed to wander, to rove over his features, and he smiled at her in reply - politely, but smiled. it suited her that he should be indulging in abstractions, arguing about the honesty of intimate relationships, about duty, the sanctity of love and marriage. it is, indeed, a well-known fact that these abstractions come in very useful indeed as a beginning, as a starting-point."