He had an indefinite contempt for women, whom he looked upon as a hindrance in all necessary business.  But he pitied Maslova and was gentle with her, for he considered her an example of the way the lower are exploited by the upper classes.  The same reason made him dislike Nekhludoff, so that he talked little with him, and never pressed Nekhludoff’s hand, but only held out his own to be pressed when greeting him.

CHAPTER XIII.

LOVE AFFAIRS OF THE EXILES.

The stove had burned up and got warm, the tea was made and poured out into mugs and cups, and milk was added to it; rusks, fresh rye and wheat bread, hard-boiled eggs, butter, and calf’s head and feet were placed on the cloth.  Everybody moved towards the part of the shelf beds which took the place of the table and sat eating and talking.  Rintzeva sat on a box pouring out the tea.  The rest crowded round her, only Kryltzoff, who had taken off his wet cloak and wrapped himself in his dry plaid and lay in his own place talking to Nekhludoff.

After the cold and damp march and the dirt and disorder they had found here, and after the pains they had taken to get it tidy, after having drunk hot tea and eaten, they were all in the best and brightest of spirits.

The fact that the tramp of feet, the screams and abuse of the criminals, reached them through the wall, reminding them of their surroundings, seemed only to increase the sense of coziness.  As on an island in the midst of the sea, these people felt themselves for a brief interval not swamped by the degradation and sufferings which surrounded them; this made their spirits rise, and excited them.  They talked about everything except their present position and that which awaited them.  Then, as it generally happens among young men, and women especially, if they are forced to remain together, as these people were, all sorts of agreements and disagreements and attractions, curiously blended, had sprung up among them.  Almost all of them were in love.  Novodvoroff was in love with the pretty, smiling Grabetz.  This Grabetz was a young, thoughtless girl who had gone in for a course of study, perfectly indifferent to revolutionary questions, but succumbing to the influence of the day, she compromised herself in some way and was exiled.  The chief interest of her life during the time of her trial in prison and in exile was her success with men, just as it had been when she was free.  Now on the way she comforted herself with the fact that Novodvoroff had taken a fancy to her, and she fell in love with him.  Vera Doukhova, who was very prone to fall in love herself, but did not awaken love in others, though she was always hoping for mutual love, was sometimes drawn to Nabatoff, then to Novodvoroff.  Kryltzoff felt something like love for Mary Pavlovna.  He loved her with a man’s love, but knowing how she regarded this sort of love, hid his feelings under the guise of