“In my opinion it was not his fault,” she said. “He couldn’t possibly wait until…”
“Yes, yes,” replied Riasantzeff, “but to hit a fellow like that! Sarudine had challenged him.”
“There you go!” exclaimed Ivanoff irritably, as he shrugged his shoulders.
“If you come to think of it, duelling is absurd!” said Yourii.
To his surprise, Yourii noticed that Sina seemed pleased to take Sanine’s part.
“At any rate, it’s….” The right phrase failed him wherewith to disparage Sanine.
Though Yourii thought Riasantzeff was little better than a brute to himself, he was glad to hear the latter abuse Sanine to Sina when she defended him. However, as she noticed Yourii’s look of annoyance, she said no more. Secretly, she was much pleased by Sanine’s strength and pluck, and was quite unwilling to accept Riasantzeff’s denouncement of duelling as just. Like Yourii, she did not consider that he was qualified to lay down the law like that.
“Wonderfully civilized, certainly,” sneered Ivanoff, “to shoot a man’s nose off, or run him through the body.”
“I certainly think that it is. What harm can a fist do? A bruise is soon healed. You won’t find that a blow with the fist ever hurt anybody much.”
“Then, what is, pray?” said Ivanoff, his thin lips curled with scorn.
“I don’t believe in fighting at all, myself, but, if it must be, then one ought to draw the line at severe bodily injuries. That’s quite clear.”
“He almost knocked the other’s eye out. I suppose you don’t call that severe bodily injury?” retorted Riasantzeff sarcastically.
“Well, of course, to lose an eye is a bad job, but it’s not the same as getting a bullet through your body. The loss of an eye is not a fatal injury.”
Yourii nervously plucked at his moustache.
“I must frankly confess,” he said, quite pleased at his own sincerity, “that personally, I have not made up my mind as regards this question. I cannot say how I should have behaved in Sanine’s place. Of course, duelling’s stupid, and to fight with fists is not much better.”
“But what is a man to do if he’s compelled to fight?” said Sina.
“It’s for Soloveitchik that we ought to be sorry,” said Riasantzeff, after a pause. The words contrasted strangely with his cheerful countenance. Then all at once, they remembered that not one of them had asked about Soloveitchik.