dull before, so what could they do to make things duller? It was senseless enough before, so what could they do to make it more senseless? So they thought of Greek and Latin. That’s my opinion, I hope I shall never change it,” Kolya finished abruptly. His cheeks were flushed.
“That’s true,” assented Smurov suddenly, in a ringing tone of conviction. He had listened attentively.
“And yet he is first in Latin himself,” cried one of the group of boys suddenly.
“Yes, father, he says that and yet he is first in Latin,” echoed Ilusha.
“What of it?” Kolya thought fit to defend himself, though the praise was very sweet to him. “I am fagging away at Latin because I have to, because I promised my mother to pass my examination, and I think that whatever you do, it’s worth doing it well. But in my soul I have a profound contempt for the classics and all that fraud. … You don’t agree, Karamazov?”