That was why Nicky had spoken so heatedly.
"Just think of eating the bodies of dead animals.
Cannibalism in the guise of culture.
All diseases stern from meat."
"Of course they do," said Liza with modest irony, "angina, for instance."
"Yes, they do-including angina.
Don't you believe me?
The organism is weakened by the continual consumption of meat and is unable to resist infection."
"How stupid!"
"It's not stupid.
It's the stupid person who tries to stuff his stomach full without bothering about the quantity of vitamins."
Nicky suddenly became quiet.
An enormous pork chop had loomed up before his inner eye, driving the insipid, uninteresting baked noodles, porridge and potato nonsense further and further into the background.
It seemed to have just come out of the pan.
It was sizzling, bubbling, and giving off spicy fumes.
The bone stuck out like the barrel of a duelling pistol.
"Try to understand," said Nicky, "a pork chop reduces a man's life by a week."
"Let it," said Liza. "Mock rabbit reduces it by six months.
Yesterday when we were eating that carrot entree I felt I was going to die.
Only I didn't want to tell you."
"Why didn't you want to tell me?"
"I hadn't the strength.
I was afraid of crying."
"And aren't you afraid now?"
"Now I don't care."
Liza began sobbing.
"Leo Tolstoy," said Nicky in a quavering voice, "didn't eat meat either."
"No," retorted Liza, hiccupping through her tears, "the count ate asparagus."
"Asparagus isn't meat."
"But when he was writing War and Peace he did eat meat.
He did! He did!
And when he was writing Anna Karenina he stuffed himself and stuffed himself."
"Do shut up!"
"Stuffed himself!
Stuffed himself!"
"And I suppose while he was writing The Kreutzer Sonata he also stuffed himself?" asked Nicky venomously.
"The Kreutzer Sonata is short.
Just imagine him trying to write War and Peace on vegetarian sausages! "
"Anyway, why do you keep nagging me about your Tolstoy?"
"Me nag you about Tolstoy!
I like that.
Me nag you!"
There was loud merriment in the pencil boxes.
Liza hurriedly pulled a blue knitted hat on to her head.
"Where are you going?"
"Leave me alone.
I have something to do."
And she fled.
"Where can she have gone?" Nicky wondered.
He listened hard.