man's
business; he flushed, laid his hand on his heart, and went on:
"Gentlemen, we see no grounds for associating the offence with the
duel. There's nothing in common between duelling and offences against
one another of which we are sometimes guilty through human weakness.
You are university men and men of culture, and no doubt you see in
the duel nothing but a foolish and out-of-date formality, and all
that sort of thing. That's how we look at it ourselves, or we
shouldn't have come, for we cannot allow that in our presence men
should fire at one another, and all that." Sheshkovsky wiped the
perspiration off his face and went on: "Make an end to your
misunderstanding, gentlemen; shake hands, and let us go home and
drink to peace. Upon my honour, gentlemen!"

Von Koren did not speak. Laevsky, seeing that they were looking at
him, said:

"I have nothing against Nikolay Vassilitch; if he considers I'm to
blame, I'm ready to apologise to him."

Von Koren was offended.

"It is evident, gentlemen," he said, "you want Mr. Laevsky to return
home a magnanimous and chivalrous figure, but I cannot give you and
him that satisfaction. And there was no need to get up early and
drive eight miles out of town simply to drink to peace, to have
breakfast, and to explain to me that the duel is an out-of-date
formality. A duel is a duel, and there is no need to make it more
false and stupid than it is in reality. I want to fight!"

A silence followed. Boyko took a pair of pistols out of a box; one
was given to Von Koren and one to Laevsky, and then there followed
a difficulty which afforded a brief amusement to the zoologist and
the seconds. It appeared that of all the people present not one had
ever in his life been at a duel, and no one knew precisely how they
ought to stand, and what the seconds ought to say and do. But then
Boyko remembered and began, with a smile, to explain.

"Gentlemen, who remembers the description in Lermontov?" asked Von
Koren, laughing. "In Turgenev, too, Bazarov had a duel with some
one. . . ."

"There's no need to remember," said Ustimovitch impatiently. "Measure
the distance, that's all."

And he took three steps as though to show how to measure it. Boyko
counted out the steps while his companion drew his sabre and scratched
the earth at the extreme points to mark the barrier. In complete
silence the opponents took their places.

"Moles," the deacon thought, sitting in the bushes.

Sheshkovsk