Page 474 - the-idiot

When she thought of her daughters, she said to herself sor-
rowfully that she was a hindrance rather than a help to their
future, that her character and temper were absurd, ridic-
ulous, insupportable. Naturally, she put the blame on her
surroundings, and from morning to night was quarrelling
with her husband and children, whom she really loved to
the point of self-sacrifice, even, one might say, of passion.
She was, above all distressed by the idea that her daugh-
ters might grow up ‘eccentric,’ like herself; she believed that
no other society girls were like them. ‘They are growing
into Nihilists!’ she repeated over and over again. For years
she had tormented herself with this idea, and with the ques-
tion: ‘Why don’t they get married?’
‘It is to annoy their mother; that is their one aim in life;
it can be nothing else. The fact is it is all of a piece with
these modern ideas, that wretched woman’s question! Six
months ago Aglaya took a fancy to cut off her magnificent
hair. Why, even I, when I was young, had nothing like it!
The scissors were in her hand, and I had to go down on my
knees and implore her... She did it, I know, from sheer mis-
chief, to spite her mother, for she is a naughty, capricious
girl, a real spoiled child spiteful and mischievous to a de-
gree! And then Alexandra wanted to shave her head, not
from caprice or mischief, but, like a little fool, simply be-
cause Aglaya persuaded her she would sleep better without
her hair, and not suffer from headache! And how many suit-
ors have they not had during the last five years! Excellent
offers, too! What more do they want? Why don’t they get
married? For no other reason than to vex their mother—