dignitaries do both at the same time."

Golushkin roared with laughter till the tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Yes, yes," he spluttered, "if he talks through his nose.. then he's an
army man!"

"You idiot!" Paklin thought to himself.

"Everything is rotten in this country, wherever you may turn!" he bawled
out after a pause. "Everything is rotten, everything!

"My dear Kapiton Andraitch," Paklin began suggestively (he had just
asked Nejdanov in an undertone, "Why does he throw his arms about as if
his coat were too tight for him?"), "my dear Kapiton Andraitch, believe
me, half measures are of no use!"

"Who talks of half measures!" Golushkin shouted furiously (he had
suddenly ceased laughing), "there's only one thing to be done; it must
all be pulled up by the roots: Vasia, drink!"

"I am drinking, Kapiton Andraitch," the clerk observed, emptying a glass
down his throat.

Golushkin followed his suit.

"I wonder he doesn't burst!" Paklin whispered to Nejdanov.

"He's used to it!" the latter replied.

But the clerk was not the only one who drank. Little by little the wine
affected them all. Nejdanov, Markelov, and even Solomin began taking
part in the conversation.

At first disdainfully, as if annoyed with himself for doing so, for not
keeping up his character, Nejdanov began to hold forth. He maintained
that the time had now come to leave off playing with words; that the
time had con e for "action," that they were now on sure ground! And
then, quite unconscious of the fact that he was contradicting himself,
he began to demand of them to show him what real existing elements they
had to rely on, saying that as far as he could see society was utterly
unsympathetic towards them, and the people were as ignorant as could be.
Nobody made any objection to what he said, not because there was nothing
to object to, but because everyone was talking on his own account.
Markelov hammered out obstinately in his hoarse, angry, monotonous voice
("just as if he were chopping cabbage," Paklin remarked). Precisely what
he was talking about no one could make out, but the word "artillery"
could be heard in a momentary hush. He was no doubt referring to the
defects he had discovered in its organisation. Germans and adjutants
were also brought in. Solomin remarked that there were two ways of
waiting, waiting and doing nothing and waiting while pushing things
ahead at the same time.

"We don't want moderates," Markelov said an