Pyotr Stepanovitch glanced askance at him from his place.
"Will Stavrogin be there?" Shatov asked suddenly, raising his head.
"He is certain to be."
"Ha ha!"
Again they were silent for a minute.
Shatov grinned disdainfully and irritably.
"And that contemptible
'Noble Personality' of yours, that I wouldn't print here. Has it been printed?" he asked.
"Yes."
"To make the schoolboys believe that Herzen himself had written it in your album?"
"Yes, Herzen himself."
Again they were silent for three minutes.
At last Shatov got up from the bed.
"Go out of my room; I don't care to sit with you."
"I'm going," Pyotr Stepanovitch brought out with positive alacrity, getting up at once. "Only one word: Kirillov is quite alone in the lodge now, isn't he, without a servant?"
"Quite alone.
Get along; I can't stand being in the same room with you."
"Well, you are a pleasant customer now!" Pyotr Stepanovitch reflected gaily as he went out into the street, "and you will be pleasant this evening too, and that just suits me; nothing better could be wished, nothing better could be wished!
The Russian God Himself seems helping me."
VII
He had probably been very busy that day on all sorts of errands and probably with success, which was reflected in the self-satisfied expression of his face when at six o'clock that evening he turned up at Stavrogin's.
But he was not at once admitted: Stavrogin had just locked himself in the study with Mavriky Nikolaevitch.
This news instantly made Pyotr Stepanovitch anxious.
He seated himself close to the study door to wait for the visitor to go away.
He could hear conversation but could not catch the words.
The visit did not last long; soon he heard a noise, the sound of an extremely loud and abrupt voice, then the door opened and Mavriky Nikolaevitch came out with a very pale face.
He did not notice Pyotr Stepanovitch, and quickly passed by.
Pyotr Stepanovitch instantly ran into the study.
I cannot omit a detailed account of the very brief interview that had taken place between the two "rivals"—an interview which might well have seemed impossible under the circumstances, but which had yet taken place.
This is how it had come about. Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch had been enjoying an after-dinner nap on the couch in his study when Alexey Yegorytch had announced the unexpected visitor.
Hearing the name, he had positively leapt up, unwilling to believe it.
But soon a smile gleamed on his lips—a smile of haughty triumph and at the same time of a blank, incredulous wonder.
The visitor, Mavriky Nikolaevitch, seemed struck by the expression of that smile as he came in; anyway, he stood still in the middle of the room as though uncertain whether to come further in or to turn back.
Stavrogin succeeded at once in transforming the expression of his face, and with an air of grave surprise took a step towards him.
The visitor did not take his outstretched hand, but awkwardly moved a chair and, not uttering a word, sat down without waiting for his host to do so.
Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch sat down on the sofa facing him obliquely and, looking at Mavriky Nikolaevitch, waited in silence.
"If you can, marry Lizaveta Nikolaevna," Mavriky Nikolaevitch brought out suddenly at last, and what was most curious, it was impossible to tell from his tone whether it was an entreaty, a recommendation, a surrender, or a command.
Stavrogin still remained silent, but the visitor had evidently said all he had come to say and gazed at him persistently, waiting for an answer.
"If I am not mistaken (but it's quite certain), Lizaveta Nikolaevna is already betrothed to you," Stavrogin said at last.
"Promised and betrothed," Mavriky Nikolaevitch assented firmly and clearly.
"You have... quarrelled?
Excuse me, Mavriky Nikolaevitch."
"No, she 'loves and respects me'; those are her words.
Her words are more precious than anything."
"Of that there can be no doubt."
"But let me tell you, if she were standing in the church at her wedding and you were to call her, she'd give up me and every one and go to you."
"From the wedding?"
"Yes, and after the wedding."
"Aren't you making a mistake?"
"No.