"
"In what way is it complicated? You are a young, good-looking, healthy
man; what more do you want?"
"In my opinion that is not enough," replied Novikoff, with mild irony.
"Really!" laughed Sanine. "Well, I think it is a very great deal."
"But not enough for me," said Novikoff, laughing in his turn. It was
plain that Sanine's remark about his health and good looks had pleased
him, and yet it had made him feel shy as a girl.
"There's one thing that you want," said Sanine, pensively.
"And what is that?"
"A just conception of life. The monotony of your existence oppresses
you; and yet, if some one advised you to give it all up, and go
straight away into the wide world, you would be afraid to do so."
"And as what should I go? As a beggar? H .. m!"
"Yes, as a beggar, even! When I look at you, I think: there is a man
who in order to give the Russian Empire a constitution would let
himself be shut up in Schlusselburg [Footnote: A fortress for political
prisoners.] for the rest of his life, losing all his rights, and his
liberty as well. After all, what is a constitution to him? But when it
is a question of altering his own tedious mode of life, and of going
elsewhere to find new interests, he at once asks, 'how should I get a
living? Strong and healthy as I am, should I not come to grief if I had
not got my fixed salary, and consequently cream in my tea, my silk
shirts, stand-up collars, and all the rest of it?' It's funny, upon my
word it is!"
"I cannot see anything funny in it at all.
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