"On the other hand," he went on, "it may be that you are too exacting?"
As he spoke he bent forward and fell to playing with the tassels of his chair.
"Possibly I am," she agreed. "But, you see, I conceive that it ought to be everything or nothing. 'A life for a life.' 'Take my all, give your all, and put a truce to regrets and any thought of return.' That is the best rule."
"Indeed?" queried Bazarov. "Well, it is not a bad rule, and I am surprised that you should have failed to attain your desire."
"Self-surrender, you think, is an easy thing?"
"Not if one considers matters first, and appraises oneself, and sets upon oneself a definite value. It is only surrender without consideration that is easy."
"But how could one not value oneself? If one had value, no one would desire one's surrender."
"That would not be your concern nor mine: some one else's business would it be to determine our respective values. The one thing that would immediately concern us would be to know how to surrender."
Madame Odintsov sat up sharply.
"I still believe you to be speaking from experience," she said.