“Of course it is!” chimed in Sina.
To his surprise, Yourii noticed that Sina seemed pleased to take Sanine’s part.
“At any rate, it’s….” The right phrase failed him wherewith to disparage Sanine.
“A brutal thing,” suggested Riasantzeff.
Though Yourii thought Riasantzeff was little better than a brute to himself, he was glad to hear the latter abuse Sanine to Sina when she defended him. However, as she noticed Yourii’s look of annoyance, she said no more. Secretly, she was much pleased by Sanine’s strength and pluck, and was quite unwilling to accept Riasantzeff’s denouncement of duelling as just. Like Yourii, she did not consider that he was qualified to lay down the law like that.
“Wonderfully civilized, certainly,” sneered Ivanoff, “to shoot a man’s nose off, or run him through the body.”
“Is a blow in the face any better?”
“I certainly think that it is. What harm can a fist do? A bruise is soon healed. You won’t find that a blow with the fist ever hurt anybody much.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Then, what is, pray?” said Ivanoff, his thin lips curled with scorn.