working people,' he said; I thought if Dmitri had said that, I
shouldn't have liked it; but he may talk about himself, he may boast
if he likes. With me he is very attentive; but I kept feeling that a
very, very condescending superior was talking with me. When he means
to praise any one, he says So-and-so is a man of principle--that's his
favourite word. He seems to be self-confident, hardworking, capable of
self-sacrifice (you see, I am impartial), that's to say, of
sacrificing his own interest; but he is a great despot. It would be
woeful to fall into his power! At dinner they began talking about
bribes.

'"I know," he said, "that in many cases the man who accepts a bribe
is not to blame; he cannot do otherwise. Still, if he is found out,
he must be punished without mercy."' I cried, "Punish an innocent
man!" '"Yes; for the sake of principle." '"What principle?" asked
Shubin. Kurnatovsky seemed annoyed or surprised, and said, "That
needs no explanation."

'Papa, who seems to worship him, put in "of course not"; and to my
vexation the conversation stopped there. In the evening Bersenyev came
and got into a terrific argument with him. I have never seen our good
Andrei Petrovitch so excited. Mr. Kurnatovsky did not at all deny the
utility of science, universities, and so on, but still I understood
Andrei Petrovitch's indignation. The man looks at it all as a sort of
gymnastics. Shubin came up to me after dinner, and said, "This fellow
here and some one else (he can never bring himself to utter your name)
are both practical men, but see what a difference; there's the real
living ideal given to life; and here there's not even a feeling of
duty, simply official honesty and activity without anything inside
it." Shubin is clever, and I remembered his words to tell you; but to