“We must choose a chairman,” people cried from different parts of the room.
“Our host, of course, our host!”
“Gentlemen, if so,” Virginsky, the chosen chairman, began, “I propose my original motion. If anyone wants to say anything more relevant to the subject, or has some statement to make, let him bring it forward without loss of time.”
There was a general silence. The eyes of all were turned again on Verhovensky and Stavrogin.
“Verhovensky, have you no statement to make?” Madame Virginsky asked him directly.
“Nothing whatever,” he answered, yawning and stretching on his chair. “But I should like a glass of brandy.”
“Stavrogin, don’t you want to?”
“Thank you, I don’t drink.”
“I mean don’t you want to speak, not don’t you want brandy.”
“To speak, what about? No, I don’t want to.”