Book 2 Chapter 33 The Aim of the Law

"Well, and how are the children?" Nekhludoff asked his sister
when he was calmer. The sister told him about the children. She
said they were staying with their grandmother (their father's
mother), and, pleased that his dispute with her husband had come
to an end, she began telling him how her children played that
they were travelling, just as he used to do with his three dolls,
one of them a negro and another which he called the French lady.

"Can you really remember it all?" said Nekhludoff, smiling.

"Yes, and just fancy, they play in the very same way."

The unpleasant conversation had been brought to an end, and
Nathalie was quieter, but she did not care to talk in her
husband's presence of what could be comprehensible only to her
brother, so, wishing to start a general conversation, she began
talking about the sorrow of Kamenski's mother at losing her only
son, who had fallen in a duel, for this Petersburg topic of the
day had now reached Moscow. Rogozhinsky expressed disapproval at
the state of things that excluded murder in a duel from the
ordinary criminal offences. This remark evoked a rejoinder from
Nekhludoff, and a new dispute arose on the subject. Nothing was
fully explained, neither of the antagonists expressed all he had
in his mind, each keeping to his conviction, which condemned the
other. Rogozhinsky felt that Nekhludoff condemned him and
despised his activity, and he wished to show him the injustice of
his opinions.

Nekhludoff, on the other hand, felt provoked by his
brother-in-law's interference in his affairs concerning the land.
And knowing in his heart of hearts that his sister, her husband,
and their children, as his heirs, had a right to do so, was
indignant that this narrow-minded man persisted with calm
assurance to regard as just and lawful what Nekhludoff no longer
doubted was folly and crime.