"Perhaps you do not believe me?" he went on. "Nevertheless, I tell you that, though you and I have been cultivating feminine society, and enjoying it, the sense of relief when such society is abandoned is like taking a cold bath on a summer's day. Never ought a man to touch such follies. Always he ought, as the excellent Spanish saying has it, 'to remain as the beasts of the field.' Look here," he added to the peasant on the box. "Do you, my man of wisdom, possess a wife?"
The peasant turned a portion of a flat, near-sighted visage in the friends' direction.
"A wife?" he repeated. "Yes, I do. Why shouldn't I?"
"Never mind that. Do you ever beat her?"
"My wife? Sometimes. But never without good cause."
"Excellent! And does she ever beat you?"
The peasant gave his reins a jerk.
"What a thing, barin!" he exclaimed. "Surely you must be joking?" Evidently the question had offended him.
"You hear that, Arkady Nikolaievitch?" said Bazarov. "You and I have been similarly beaten. That is what comes of being gentry."
Arkady laughed in spite of himself, but Bazarov turned away, and did not speak again until the end of the journey.