The dinner proceeded slowly in the usual order. The discussion grew
hotter, and went helter-skelter from subject to subject. Such is said
to be the Russian manner in argument. Perhaps it is the universal
manner of people when discussing something that touches them deeply.

Piotr exclaimed hotly:

"Why is the autocracy of the proletariat better than the one already
in force? And what wild, barbarous watchwords they have! 'Who is not
with us, he is against us!' 'Who is master, let him get down from his
place; it's our banquet.'"

"It's yet too early to speak of our banquet," said Elena in a
restrained voice.

"Do you know where we are drifting?" continued Piotr. "There will be a
reign of terror, and a shaking up such as Russia has not yet
experienced. The point at issue is not that there is talking or doing
here or there by certain gentry who imagine that they are making
history. The real issue is in the clash of two classes, two interests,
two cultures, two conceptions of the world, two moral systems. Who is
it that wishes to seize the crown of lordship? It is the
_Kham_,[3] it is he who threatens to devour our culture."

[Footnote 3: This word, which is the Russian equivalent for _Ham_
of the Bible, describes a man in a state of serfdom. Since the
abolition of serfdom in Russia, it has come to define the plebeian;
and is a sort of personification of the rabble. The satirist Stchedrin
has defined _Kham_ as "one who eats with a knife and takes milk