“Oho! Then you’ll have to meet him,” said Ivanoff. “I’ll be your second, and you shall shoot his nose off.”
“Why? The nose is a noble part of one’s physiognomy. I am not going to fight,” rejoined Sanine, laughing.
Ivanoff nodded.
“A good thing, too. Duelling is quite unnecessary.”
“My sister Lida doesn’t think so,” said Sanine.
“Because she’s a goose,” replied Ivanoff. “What a lot of tomfoolery people choose to believe, don’t they?”
So saying, he finished making the last cigarette, which he lighted, putting the others in his leather cigarette-case.
Then he blew away the tobacco left on the window-sill, and, vaulting over it, joined Sanine.
“What shall we do this evening?” he asked.
“Let us go and see Soloveitchik,” suggested Sanine.