Lida was silent, and she breathed heavily.
“Why, what is the matter?”
“Are you—not going to fight a duel?” she asked hoarsely, without looking round.
“No.”
Lida was silent.
“Well, what of that?” said Sanine.
Lida’s chin trembled. She turned sharply round and murmured quickly:
“I can’t understand that, I can’t…”
“Oh!” exclaimed Sanine, frowning. “Well, I’m very sorry for you.”
Human stupidity and malice surrounded him on all sides. To find such qualities alike in bad folk and good folk, in handsome people as in ugly, proved utterly disheartening.