noble qualities
and would become friends. But he could not come across Laevsky.

"What should I go and see him for?" repeated Samoylenko. "I did not
insult him; he insulted me. Tell me, please, why he attacked me.
What harm had I done him? I go into the drawing-room, and, all of
a sudden, without the least provocation: 'Spy!' There's a nice
thing! Tell me, how did it begin? What did you say to him?"

"I told him his position was hopeless. And I was right. It is only
honest men or scoundrels who can find an escape from any position,
but one who wants to be at the same time an honest man and a scoundrel
--it is a hopeless position. But it's eleven o'clock, gentlemen,
and we have to be up early to-morrow."

There was a sudden gust of wind; it blew up the dust on the sea-front,
whirled it round in eddies, with a howl that drowned the roar of
the sea.

"A squall," said the deacon. "We must go in, our eyes are getting
full of dust."

As they went, Samoylenko sighed and, holding his hat, said:

"I suppose I shan't sleep to-night."

"Don't you agitate yourself," laughed the zoologist. "You can set
your mind at rest; the duel will end in nothing. Laevsky will
magnanimously fire into the air--he can do nothing else; and I
daresay I shall not fire at all. To be arrested and lose my time
on Laevsky's account--the game's not worth the candle. By the
way, what is the punishment for duelling?"

"Arrest, and in the case of the death of your opponent a maximum
of three years' imprisonment in the fortress."

"The fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul?"

"No, in a military fortress, I believe."

"Though this fine gentleman ought to have a lesson!"

Behind them on the sea, there was a flash of lightning, which for
an instant lighted up the roofs of the houses and the mountains.
The friends parted near the boulevard. When the doctor disappeared
in the darkness and his steps had died away, Von Koren shouted to
him:

"I only hope the weather won't interfere with us to-morrow!"

"Very likely it will! Please God it may!"

"Good-night!"

"What about the night? What do you say?"

In the roar of the wind and the sea and the crashes of thunder, it
was difficult to hear.

"It's nothing," shouted the zoologist, and hurried home.

XVII

"Upon my mind, weighed down with woe,
Crowd thoughts, a heavy multitude:
In silence memory unfolds
Her long, long scroll before my eyes.