So, there's a scandal.... You had to carry it to the point of making a scandal--you damned fool! (_More calmly_.) Lanski has challenged you?
Well, yes--and it is well known--Lanski is a dead shot. He is perhaps the best shot anywhere hereabouts.... But still your wrist is in good order. How can one throw the thing away like that? I have fought three duels, and two of them under difficult conditions--eh--and--there, see here! How can one say such a thing? How can one, man?
Father, the affair at this moment is in such a state that, after all, I don't know whether I shall be granted a duel!
Then don't ask me!... I can't say it, father.... I had rather bite off my tongue. (_Pauses_.)
(_Goes to the door on the left, opens it, looks out, and closes it again_.) Now speak! (_Wildly_.) Speak or----
For me, father, there is no more any "or." ... Whether you turn me out or not, it is all the same.
He whipped me--across the courtyard--out into the street--whipped me like a beast!
Where was your sabre? You could have run him through.
It was not at hand.... Hm!... Now I understand it all. Surely there is nothing left to wish! And this catastrophe occurred when?
Father, only don't laugh! Have pity on me!
Have you had pity on me?... Or on your mother? or on--on.... Just look, look about you ... All that was made for you!... All that was waiting for you.... For two centuries we Drosses have struggled and scraped together and fought with death and devil merely for you.... The house of Drosse was resting on your two shoulders, my son.... And you have let it fall into the mire, and now you would like to be pitied!
Dear father, listen.... Since you have known it, I am quite calm.... What you say is all very true, but I cannot bear the responsibility alone. Listen; when I came to you that time, on account of Agnes, my whole heart was attached to her. So far as I was concerned, other men's wives could go to the devil.
Did I drive you, then, after other men's wives?
Yes, father, otherwise what does that mean: "Get some experience, ripen, do as your father and grandfather did"?... In the regiment, they still call you the wild Drosse, and tales are still told of your former love adventures.... They tell some such stories even of a late date.... For my part, I had not the least taste for such diversions. I used to see in every woman who did not belong to me, a sort of holy thing.... That may have been a green way of looking at it, but you would have allowed it; and with Agnes, I should have quietly----