"Thou knowest that I have rather cool blood; but, in truth, it seems at times a dream. That a man should permit himself to insult me because I sell my own property, simply passes human understanding." "What dost thou think of doing? Old Plavitski will be the first to warm Gantovski's ears, and force him to beg thy pardon." Mashko's face took on such a cold and determined expression of wrath that Pan Stanislav thought,-- "Well, 'the bear' has brewed beer of a kind that he did not expect; now he must drink it." "No one has ever offended me without being punished, and no one ever will. This man not only has insulted me, but has done me a wrong beyond estimation." "He is a fool, simply irresponsible." "A mad dog, too, is irresponsible, but people shoot him in the head. I talk, as thou seest, coolly; listen, then, to what I say: a catastrophe has come to me, from which I shall not rise." "Thou art speaking coolly; but anger is stifling thee, and thou art ready to exaggerate." "Not in the least; be patient, and hear me to the end. The position is this: If my marriage is stopped, or even put off, a few months, the devils will take me, with my position, my credit, my Kremen, and all that I have. I tell thee that I am travelling with the last of my steam, and I must stop. Panna Kraslavski does not marry me for love, but because she is twenty-nine years of age, and I seem to her, if not the match she dreamed of, at least a satisfactory one. If it shall seem that I am not what she thinks, she will break with me. If those ladies should discover to-day that I sold the oak in Kremen from necessity, I should receive a refusal to-morrow. Now think: the scandal was public, for it was in presence of my subordinates. The matter will not be kept secret. I might explain to those ladies the sale of the oak, but yet I shall be an insulted man. If I do not challenge Gantovski, they may break with me, as a fellow without honor; if I challenge him,--remember that they are devotees, and, besides, women who keep up appearances as no others that I know,--they will break with me then as a man of adventures. If I shoot Gantovski, they will break with me as a murderer; if he hits me, they will break with me as an imbecile, who lets himself be insulted and beaten. In a hundred chances there are ninety that they will act in this way. Is it clear to thee now why I said that the devils will take me, my credit, my position, and Kremen in addition?" Pan Stanislav waved his hand with all the easy egotism to which a man can bring himself in reference to another, who, at the bottom of things, is of little account to him. "Bah!" said he; "maybe I will buy Kremen of thee. But the position is difficult. What dost thou think, then, of doing with Gantovski?" To this Mashko answered: "So far I pay my debts. Thou dost not wish to be my groomsman; wilt thou be my second?" "That is not refused," answered Pan Stanislav. "I thank thee. Gantovksi lives in the Hotel Saxe."