'One must do something,' he answered. 'If one thing doesn't do, one
must try another. However, like a true Corsican, I am more concerned
with revenge than with pure art. _Trema, Bisanzia!_'

'I don't understand you,' said Bersenyev.

'Well, wait a minute. Deign to look this way, gracious friend and
benefactor, my vengeance number one.'

Shubin uncovered one figure, and Bersenyev saw a capital bust of
Insarov, an excellent likeness. The features of the face had been
correctly caught by Shubin to the minutest detail, and he had given
him a fine expression, honest, generous, and bold.

Bersenyev went into raptures over it.

'That's simply exquisite!' he cried. 'I congratulate you. You must
send it to the exhibition! Why do you call that magnificent work your
vengeance?'

'Because, sir, I intended to offer this magnificent work as you call
it to Elena Nikolaevna on her name day. Do you see the allegory? We
are not blind, we see what goes on about us, but we are gentlemen, my
dear sir, and we take our revenge like gentlemen. . . . But here,'
added Shubin, uncovering another figure, 'as the artist according to
modern aesthetic principles enjoys the enviable privilege of embodying
in himself every sort of baseness which he can turn into a gem of
creative art, we in the production of this gem, number two, have taken
vengeance not as gentlemen, but simply en canaille'