“It may not please you. It is a compromise.”
“A compromise? How? I see none.”
“Well, I will put it. You have a double motive in this fight with the Prince—to clear your father’s memory, and to punish Kalkov. Let me see him and tell him if he will right your father’s name you will leave him alone.”
“Let him continue to prosper on his infamy? You ask this?”
“If you cannot tear down the stones of this place, will you help yourself by dashing your head against the walls? As we stand, we are helpless.”
“I can punish him, and all Russia.”
“Will that help in the really greater object?”
“You are tempting me to be untrue to my whole life.”
“I am showing you how possibly you may gain your end.”
“But the proofs of his baseness will get to the Emperor.”