The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: lock, and she shut herself up. I pushed at the door. There was
no response. Furious, I went away.
"A half hour later Lise came running all in tears. 'What! Has
anything happened? We cannot hear Mamma!' We went toward my
wife's room. I pushed the door with all my might. The bolt was
scarcely drawn, and the door opened. In a skirt, with high
boots, my wife lay awkwardly on the bed. On the table an empty
opium phial. We restored her to life. Tears and then
reconciliation! Not reconciliation; internally each kept the
hatred for the other, but it was absolutely necessary for the
moment to end the scene in some way, and life began again as
 The Kreutzer Sonata |