Friend: What are they?
Master: The diary of my great-grandfather.
Friend: What an antiquity!
Master: It has enchanted me.
Friend: The antiquity?
Master: I was enchanted by his old masterly way of life, beautiful, merry; d’you understand, it enchanted me ? And to reproduce it even approximately became my sacred dream.
Friend: You were always a dreamer.
Master: Look! the dream has come true! I live where he lived, in the same apartments, with the same habits. I took these girls—come nearer, Grusha!—these dear girls as slaves, and then there’s Egórich
Friend: What an extraordinary likeness to Baroness Nordman!
Master: That poor woman died recently.
Friend: Really? How sad! She was a truly advanced woman. The feminist movement lost much by her death. Lord! how fervently she insisted upon equal rights with men!
Master: And how terribly her soul wished to tremble before a man’s strength! Know this—she was a real woman. She sought her ravisher,
