Youth by Leo Tolstoy Chapter 3 Page 6

] or two with one hand, and just hold him there, so that he may feel my strength and cease from his conduct. Yet that too would not be right.

No, no, it would not matter; I should not hurt him, merely show him that I — ”

Let no one blame me because the dreams of my youth were as foolish as those of my childhood and boyhood. I am sure that, even if it be my fate to live to extreme old age and to continue my story with the years, I, an old man of seventy, shall be found dreaming dreams just as impossible and childish as those I am dreaming now. I shall be dreaming of some lovely Maria who loves me, the toothless old man, as she might love a Mazeppa; of some imbecile son who, through some extraordinary chance, has suddenly become a minister of state; of my suddenly receiving a windfall of a million of roubles.