“I’m not to blame that the conversation began in the presence of other officers. Perhaps I ought not to have spoken before them, but I am not a diplomatist. That’s why I joined the hussars, thinking that here one would not need finesse; and he tells me that I am lying⁠—so let him give me satisfaction⁠ ⁠…”

“That’s all right. No one thinks you a coward, but that’s not the point. Ask Denísov whether it is not out of the question for a cadet to demand satisfaction of his regimental commander?”

Denísov sat gloomily biting his mustache and listening to the conversation, evidently with no wish to take part in it. He answered the staff captain’s question by a disapproving shake of his head.

“You speak to the colonel about this nasty business before other officers,” continued the staff captain, “and Bogdánich” (the colonel was called Bogdánich) “shuts you up.”

“He did not shut me up, he said I was telling an untruth.”