Page 472 - the-idiot
P. 472

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          HE Epanchin family, or at least the more serious mem-
       Tbers of it, were sometimes grieved because they seemed
       so  unlike  the  rest  of  the  world.  They  were  not  quite  cer-
       tain, but had at times a strong suspicion that things did not
       happen to them as they did to other people. Others led a
       quiet, uneventful life, while they were subject to continual
       upheavals. Others kept on the rails without difficulty; they
       ran off at the slightest obstacle. Other houses were governed
       by a timid routine; theirs was somehow different. Perhaps
       Lizabetha Prokofievna was alone in making these fretful
       observations; the girls, though not wanting in intelligence,
       were still young; the general was intelligent, too, but narrow,
       and in any difficulty he was content to say, ‘H’m!’ and leave
       the matter to his wife. Consequently, on her fell the respon-
       sibility. It was not that they distinguished themselves as a
       family by any particular originality, or that their excursions
       off the track led to any breach of the proprieties. Oh no.
         There was nothing premeditated, there was not even any
       conscious purpose in it all, and yet, in spite of everything,
       the family, although highly respected, was not quite what
       every highly respected family ought to be. For a long time
       now Lizabetha Prokofievna had had it in her mind that all
       the trouble was owing to her ‘unfortunate character, ‘and
       this added to her distress. She blamed her own stupid un-

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