"
"You miss your wife very much?" I asked.
"There is not a moment of the day but I do not think of her," he
answered very solemnly, staring in front of him. "That must seem
strange to you who did not know her, and even I sometimes think it is
not good. But what to do? She was a woman so remarkable that no one
who knew her can forget."
"I have often been told that every one who knew her loved her," I
said.
"Ah! you have heard that.... They talk of her, of course. She will
always be remembered." His eyes shone with pleasure. "Yes, every one
loved her. I myself loved her with a passion that nothing can ever
change. And why?... I cannot tell you--unless it were that she was the
only person I have known who did not wish me another kind of man. I
could be myself with her and know that she still cared for me.... I
will not pretend to you, Ivan Andreievitch, that I think myself a fine
man," he continued. "I have never thought myself so. When I was very
young I envied tall men and handsome men and men who knew what was the
best thing to do without thinking of it.
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