But at last, when the husband returned with a strong smell of tobacco in his thick moustache, and looked at Nekhludoff with a patronising, contemptuous air, as if not recognising him, Nekhludoff left the box before the door was closed again, found his overcoat, and went out of the theatre.  As he was walking home along the Nevski, he could not help noticing a well-shaped and aggressively finely-dressed woman, who was quietly walking in front of him along the broad asphalt pavement.  The consciousness of her detestable power was noticeable in her face and the whole of her figure.  All who met or passed that woman looked at her.  Nekhludoff walked faster than she did and, involuntarily, also looked her in the face.  The face, which was probably painted, was handsome, and the woman looked at him with a smile and her eyes sparkled.  And, curiously enough, Nekhludoff was suddenly reminded of Mariette, because he again felt both attracted and disgusted just as when in the theatre.

Having hurriedly passed her, Nekhludoff turned off on to the Morskaya, and passed on to the embankment, where, to the surprise of a policeman, he began pacing up and down the pavement.

“The other one gave me just such a smile when I entered the theatre,” he thought, “and the meaning of the smile was the same.  The only difference is, that this one said plainly, ’If you want me, take me; if not, go your way,’ and the other one pretended that she was not thinking of this, but living in some high and refined state, while this was really at the root.  Besides, this one was driven to it by necessity, while the other amused herself by playing with that enchanting, disgusting, frightful passion.  This woman of the street was like stagnant, smelling water offered to those whose thirst was greater than their disgust; that other one in the theatre was like the poison which, unnoticed, poisons everything it gets into.”

Nekhludoff recalled his liaison with the Marechal’s wife, and shameful memories rose before him.

“The animalism of the brute nature in man is disgusting,” thought he, “but as long as it remains in its naked form we observe it from the height of our spiritual life and despise it; and—­whether one has fallen or resisted—­one remains what one was before.  But when that same animalism hides under a cloak of poetry and aesthetic feeling and demands our worship—­then we are swallowed up by it completely, and worship animalism, no longer distinguishing good from evil.  Then it is awful.”

Nekhludoff perceived all this now as clearly as he saw the palace, the sentinels, the fortress, the river, the boats, and the Stock Exchange.  And just as on this northern summer night there was no restful darkness on the earth, but only a dismal, dull light coming from an invisible source, so in Nekhludoff’s soul there was no longer the restful darkness, ignorance.  Everything seemed clear.  It was clear that everything considered important and good was insignificant and repulsive, and that all the glamour and luxury hid the old, well-known crimes, which not only remained unpunished but were adorned with all the splendour which men were capable of inventing.