"Are we ever to have an end of this?" Madame Virginsky said resolutely to her husband. As the hostess, she blushed for the ineptitude of the conversation, especially as she noticed smiles and even astonishment among the guests who had been invited for the first time. "Gentlemen," said Virginsky, suddenly lifting up his voice, "if anyone wishes to say anything more nearly connected with our business, or has any statement to make, I call upon him to do so without wasting time." "I'll venture to ask one question," said the lame teacher suavely. He had been sitting particularly decorously and had not spoken till then. "I should like to know, are we some sort of meeting, or are we simply a gathering of ordinary mortals paying a visit? I ask simply for the sake of order and so as not to remain in ignorance." This "sly" question made an impression. People looked at each other, every one expecting someone else to answer, and suddenly all, as though at a word of command, turned their eyes to Verhovensky and Stavrogin. "I suggest our voting on the answer to the question whether we are a meeting or not," said Madame Virginsky. "I entirely agree with the suggestion," Liputin chimed in, "though the question is rather vague." "I agree too." "And so do I," cried voices. "I too think it would make our proceedings more in order," confirmed Virginsky. "To the vote then," said his wife. "Lyamshin, please sit down to the piano; you can give your vote from there when the voting begins." "Again!" cried Lyamshin. "I've strummed enough for you." "I beg you most particularly, sit down and play. Don't you care to do anything for the cause?" "But I assure you, Arina Prohorovna, nobody is eavesdropping. It's only your fancy. Besides, the windows are high, and people would not understand if they did hear." "We don't understand ourselves," someone muttered. "But I tell you one must always be on one's guard. I mean in case there should be spies," she explained to Verhovensky. "Let them hear from the street that we have music and a name-day party." "Hang it all!" Lyamshin swore, and sitting down to the piano, began strumming a valse, banging on the keys almost with his fists, at random. "I propose that those who want it to be a meeting should put up their right hands," Madame Virginsky proposed. Some put them up, others did not. Some held them up and then put them down again and then held them up again. "Foo! I don't understand it at all," one officer shouted. "I don't either," cried the other. "Oh, I understand," cried a third. "If it's yes, you hold your hand up." "But what does 'yes' mean?" "Means a meeting." "No, it means not a meeting." "I voted for a meeting," cried the schoolboy to Madame Virginsky. "Then why didn't you hold up your hand?" "I was looking at you. You didn't hold up yours, so I didn't hold up mine."