“Don’t be uneasy, gentlemen, he will want to,” Pyotr Stepanovitch snapped out. “I am obliged by our agreement to give him warning the day before, so it must be today. I invite Liputin to go with me at once to see him and make certain, and he will tell you, gentlemen, when he comes back⁠—today if need be⁠—whether what I say is true. However,” he broke off suddenly with intense exasperation, as though he suddenly felt he was doing people like them too much honour by wasting time in persuading them, “however, do as you please. If you don’t decide to do it, the union is broken up⁠—but solely through your insubordination and treachery. In that case we are all independent from this moment. But under those circumstances, besides the unpleasantness of Shatov’s betrayal and its consequences, you will have brought upon yourselves another little unpleasantness of which you were definitely warned when the union was formed. As far as I am concerned, I am not much afraid of you, gentlemen.⁠ ⁠… Don’t imagine that I am so involved with you.⁠ ⁠… But that’s no matter.”

“Yes, we decide to do it,” Liputin pronounced.