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"Splendid idea!... Agreed!... And why not?"... came from all sides. "And you, Grushnitski?" Tremblingly I awaited Grushnitski's answer. I was filled with cold rage at the thought that, but for an accident, I might have made myself the laughing-stock of those fools.
"You are Grushnitski's friend and will no doubt be his second?" The captain bowed very gravely. "You have guessed rightly," he answered. "Moreover, I am bound to be his second, because the insult offered to him touches myself also. I was with him last night," he added, straightening up his stooping figure. "Ah! So it was you whose head I struck so clumsily?"...
"A country in which thousands of people, because they are richer than I, will look upon me with contempt, whilst here here this thick cloak has not prevented my acquaintance with you"... "On the contrary"... said Princess Mary, blushing. Grushnitski's face was a picture of delight.
I went out alone, and, meeting Princess Mary I asked her to keep the mazurka for me. She seemed surprised and delighted. "I thought that you would only dance from necessity as on the last occasion," she said, with a very charming smile... She does not seem to notice Grushnitski's absence at all. "You will be agreeably surprised to-morrow," I said to her. "At what?"
When old age approaches they become either peaceful landed-gentry or drunkards sometimes both. Frequently they have many good qualities, but they have not a grain of poetry in their composition. Grushnitski's passion was declamation. He would deluge you with words so soon as the conversation went beyond the sphere of ordinary ideas. I have never been able to dispute with him.
"I found the captain of dragoons at Grushnitski's, together with another gentleman whose surname I do not remember. I stopped a moment in the ante-room, in order to take off my goloshes. They were squabbling and making a terrible uproar. 'On no account will I agree, Grushnitski was saying: 'he has insulted me publicly; it was quite a different thing before'...
Whichever of you is killed his death will be put down to the account of the Circassians. And now I must tell you what I suspect: they, that is to say the seconds, may have made some change in their former plan and may want to load only Grushnitski's pistol. That is something like murder, but in time of war, and especially in Asiatic warfare, such tricks are allowed.
Grushnitski is looked upon as a man of distinguished courage. I have seen him in action. He waves his sabre, shouts, and hurls himself forward with his eyes shut. That is not what I should call Russian courage!... I reciprocate Grushnitski's dislike. I feel that some time or other we shall come into collision upon a narrow road, and that one of us will fare badly.
All my patients are occupied with that important piece of news; but you know what these patients are: they know everything." "This is one of Grushnitski's tricks," I said to myself. "To prove the falsity of these rumours, doctor, I may mention, as a secret, that I am moving to Kislovodsk to-morrow"... "And Princess Mary, too?" "No, she remains here another week"...
I shrugged my shoulders and bowed to Grushnitski's seconds. AS I descended by the path, I observed Grushnitski's bloodstained corpse between the clefts of the rocks. Involuntarily, I closed my eyes. Untying my horse, I set off home at a walking pace. A stone lay upon my heart. To my eyes the sun seemed dim, its beams were powerless to warm me.
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