from Dubetchnya, it's dreadful to think! It's far and unfathomable
as the sky, and I long to be there in freedom. I am triumphant, I
am mad, and you see how incoherent my letter is. Dear, good one,
give me my freedom, make haste to break the thread, which still
holds, binding you and me together. My meeting and knowing you was
a ray from heaven that lighted up my existence; but my becoming
your wife was a mistake, you understand that, and I am oppressed
now by the consciousness of the mistake, and I beseech you, on my
knees, my generous friend, quickly, quickly, before I start for the
ocean, telegraph that you consent to correct our common mistake,
to remove the solitary stone from my wings, and my father, who will
undertake all the arrangements, promised me not to burden you too
much with formalities. And so I am free to fly whither I will? Yes?

"Be happy, and God bless you; forgive me, a sinner.

"I am well, I am wasting money, doing all sorts of silly things,
and I thank God every minute that such a bad woman as I has no
children. I sing and have success, but it's not an infatuation; no,
it's my haven, my cell to which I go for peace. King David had a
ring with an inscription on it: 'All things pass.' When one is sad
those words make one cheerful, and when one is cheerful it makes
one sad. I have got myself a ring like that with Hebrew letters on
it, and this talisman keeps me from infatuations. All things pass,
life will pass, one wants nothing. Or at least one wants nothing
but the sense of freedom, for when anyone is free, he wants nothing,
nothing, nothing. Break the thread. A warm hug to you and your
sister. Forgive and forget your M."

My sister used to lie down in one room, and Radish, who had been