He stopped suddenly, as if somewhat embarrassed. Dead silence ensued. A
sad spirit seemed to pass noiselessly through the room. Tears rose to
Sina's eyes, and Lialia's face grew red with emotion. Yourii smiled
mournfully as he turned towards the window.
"That's all," said Riasantzeff meditatively.
"What more would you have?" asked Sina with quivering lips.
Ivanoff rose and reached across for the matches that were on the table.
"It's nothing more than tomfoolery," he muttered.
"For shame!" was Sina's indignant protest.
Yourii glanced in disgust at Ivanoff's long, smooth hair and turned
away.
"To take the case of Soloveitchik," resumed Riasantzeff, and again his
eyes twinkled. "I always thought him a nincompoop--a silly Jew boy. And
now, see what he has shown himself to be! There is no love more sublime
than the love which bids one sacrifice one's life for humanity."
"But he didn't sacrifice his life for humanity," replied Ivanoff, as he
looked askance at Riasantzeff's portly face and figure, and observed
how tightly his waistcoat fitted him.
"Yes, but it's the same thing, for if ..."
"It's not the same thing at all," was Ivanoff's stubborn retort, and
his eyes flashed angrily. "It's the act of an idiot, that's what it
is!"
His strange hatred of Soloveitchik made a most unpleasant impression
upon the others.
Sina Karsavina, as she got up to go, whispered to Yourii, "I am going.
He is simply detestable."
Yourii nodded. "Utterly brutal," he murmured.
Immediately after Sina's departure, Lialia and Riasantzeff went out.
Ivanoff sat pensively smoking his cigarette for a while, as he stared
sulkily at a corner of the room. Then he also departed.
In the street as he walked along, swinging his arms in the usual way,
he thought to himself, in his wrath: "These fools imagine that I am not capable of understanding what they
understand! I like that! I know exactly what they think and feel,
better than they do themselves. I also know that there is no love more
sublime than the love which bids a man lay down his life for others.
But for a man to go and hang himself simply because he is of no good to
anybody--that's absolute nonsense!"