ALEXIS. Pah! Leave God out of it! Don’t give me any such cant nonsense. I doubt if God takes any interest in either of us. I have delivered myself into your hands. That’s the simple fact of the matter. I could have trapped you so easily, too, but I didn’t even have you searched. You may as well take the pistol out of your pocket.
BORIS. Your excellency seems amused.
ALEXIS. No, no, not amused! I’m only curious to see you handle the thing—morbid curiosity, if you like. Take it out, man, take it out!
BORIS. This is a solemn moment for us both, your excellency.
ALEXIS. Solemn, eh? Well, well! Solemn! Oh, I suppose it is solemn for you, Boris Ivanovitch. To me it is simply curious grotesque. Well, well!
BORIS. [Takes out pistol.] Keep your hand a little further from that bell, if you please.
ALEXIS. I shan’t ring. You would hardly wait for them to answer the bell, would you? No, no! I’m not such a fool as to think you’d do that? Well, well! I lift my hand and you shoot.
BORIS. Yes.
ALEXIS. Exactly. Well, I won’t lift my hand.
BORIS. Nothing on earth can save you, Alexis Alexandrovitch.