The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: Polikey's next-door neighbors were a joiner and his wife. A thin
partition only separated the two families, and each could hear
what the other said and did. Soon after Polikey's departure a
woman was heard to say: "Well, Polikey Illitch, so your mistress
has sent for you!"
The voice was that of the joiner's wife on the other side of the
partition. Akulina and the woman had quarrelled that morning
about some trifling thing done by one of Polikey's children, and
it afforded her the greatest pleasure to learn that her neighbor
had been summoned into the presence of his noble mistress. She
looked upon such a circumstance as a bad omen. She continued
 The Kreutzer Sonata |