MARY PAVLOVNA
In spite of their hard conditions, life among the political prisoners seemed very good to Katusha after the six years of depraved, luxurious, and effeminate life she had led in town, and after the several months’ imprisonment with criminal prisoners. The fifteen to twenty miles covered each day, with good food and one day’s rest after two days’ marching, strengthened her physically; and the fellowship with her new companions opened out a life full of interests such as she had never dreamt of. People so wonderful (so she expressed it) as those whom she was now with, she had not only never met but could not even have imagined.
“There now! and I cried when I was sentenced,” she said. “Why, I must thank God for it all the days of my life. I have learned to know what I never should have found out otherwise.”
She understood easily and without effort the motives that guided these people, and being of the people herself fully sympathised with them. She understood that they were for the people and against the upper classes, and, though themselves belonging to the upper classes, had sacrificed their privileges, their liberty, and their lives for the people. This especially made her value and admire them.
She was delighted with all her new companions, but particularly with Mary Pavlovna; whom she was not only delighted with, but loved with a peculiar, respectful, and devoted love. She was struck by the fact that this beautiful girl, who could speak three languages, the daughter of a rich general, gave away all that her rich brother sent her, lived like the simplest working girl, and dressed not only simply but poorly, paying no heed to her appearance. This trait, a complete absence of coquetry, was particularly surprising and therefore attractive to Maslova.