His voice sounded calm and pleasant, in strange contrast to
the harsh accent of the disputants.
Yourii was silent. This good-tempered, mocking tone of voice annoyed
him, yet he had no answer ready. He was not fond of arguing with
Sanine, for his usual vocabulary proved useless in such an encounter.
Every time it seemed as if he were trying to break down a wall while
standing on smooth ice.
Von Deitz, however, stumbling along and rattling his spurs, exclaimed
irritably:
"May I ask why?"
"Because I do," replied Sanine coolly.
"Because you do! If one asserts a thing, one ought to prove it."
"Why must I prove it? There is no need to prove anything. It is my own
personal conviction, but I have not the slightest wish to convince you.
Besides, it would be useless."
"According to your line of reasoning," observed Yourii cautiously, "one
had better make a bonfire of all literature."
"Oh no I Why do that?" replied Sanine. "Literature is a very great, and
a very interesting thing. Real literature, such as I mean, is not
polemical after the manner of some prig who, having nothing to do,
endeavours to convince everybody that he is extremely intelligent.
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