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the whole room.
For one moment everyone stared at him without a word;
and at once everyone felt that something revolting, gro-
tesque, positively scandalous, was about to happen. Miusov
passed immediately from the most benevolent frame of
mind to the most savage. All the feelings that had subsided
and died down in his heart revived instantly.
‘No! this I cannot endure!’ he cried. ‘I absolutely cannot!
and... I certainly cannot!’
The blood rushed to his head. He positively stammered;
but he was beyond thinking of style, and he seized his hat.
‘What is it he cannot?’ cried Fyodor Pavlovitch, ‘that he
absolutely cannot and certainly cannot? Your reverence, am
I to come in or not? Will you receive me as your guest?’
‘You are welcome with all my heart,’ answered the Su-
perior. ‘Gentlemen!’ he added, ‘I venture to beg you most
earnestly to lay aside your dissensions, and to be united in
love and family harmony- with prayer to the Lord at our
humble table.’
‘No, no, it is impossible!’ cried Miusov, beside himself.
‘Well, if it is impossible for Pyotr Alexandrovitch, it is
impossible for me, and I won’t stop. That is why I came. I
will keep with Pyotr Alexandrovitch everywhere now. If
you will go away, Pyotr Alexandrovitch, I will go away too,
if you remain, I will remain. You stung him by what you
said about family harmony, Father Superior, he does not ad-
mit he is my relation. That’s right, isn’t it, von Sohn? Here’s
von Sohn. How are you, von Sohn?’
‘Do you mean me?’ muttered Maximov, puzzled.