“Don’t interfere! Let them fight it out!” interposed Sanine, laughing.
“It does not seem, but it is so!” said Novikoff, in the same tone, his eyes still fixed on his glass.
Instantly, as it were, a living wall rose up between the rivals, amid much shouting, waving of arms, and expressions of amusement or of surprise. Sarudine was held back by Malinowsky and Von Deitz, while Ivanoff and the other officers kept Novikoff in check. Ivanoff filled up the glasses, and shouted out something, addressing no one in particular. The gaiety was now forced and insincere, and Novikoff felt suddenly that he must get away.
He could bear it no longer. Smiling foolishly, he turned to Ivanoff and the officers who were trying to engage his attention.
“What is the matter with me?” he thought, half-dazed. “I suppose I ought to strike him … rush at him, and give him one in the eye! Otherwise, I shall look such a fool, for they must all have guessed that I wanted to pick a quarrel….”
But, instead of doing this, he pretended to be interested in what Ivanoff and Von Deitz were saying.
“As regards women, I don’t altogether agree with Tolstoi,” said the officer complacently.
“A woman’s just a female,” replied Ivanoff, “In every thousand men you might find one worthy to be called a man. But women, bah! They’re all alike—just little naked, plump, rosy apes without tails!”
“Rather smart, that!” said Von Deitz, approvingly.
“And true, too,” thought Novikoff, bitterly.
“My dear fellow,” continued Ivanoff, waving his hands close to the other’s nose, “I’ll tell you what, if you were to go to people and say, ‘Whatsoever woman looketh on a man to lust after him hath committed adultery with him already in her heart,’ most of them would probably think that you had made a most original remark.”
Von Deitz burst into a fit of hoarse laughter that sounded like the barking of a dog. He had not understood Ivanoff’s joke, but felt sorry not to have made it himself.
Suddenly Novikoff held out his hand to him.
“What? Are you off?” asked Von Deitz in surprise.
Still Novikoff was silent. He felt that in another moment the grief pent up within his bosom must break forth in a flood of tears.
“I know what’s wrong with you,” said Sanine. “Spit on it all!”