anathema accursed, as it is,” Grigory suddenly burst out, “and how dare you argue, you rascal, after that, if—”
“Don’t scold him, Grigory, don’t scold him,” Fyodor Pavlovitch cut him short.
“You should wait, Grigory Vassilyevitch, if only a short time, and listen, for I haven’t finished all I had to say. For at the very moment I become accursed, at that same highest moment, I become exactly like a heathen, and my christening is taken off me and becomes of no avail. Isn’t that so?”
“Make haste and finish, my boy,” Fyodor Pavlovitch urged him, sipping from his wineglass with relish.
“And if I’ve ceased to be a Christian, then I told no lie to the enemy when they asked whether I was a Christian or not a Christian, seeing I had already been relieved by God Himself of my Christianity by reason of the thought