"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. In the first case, it is the
question of a cause, an idea, whereas in the other--"

"Well?"

"Oh! I don't know how to express myself!" And Novikoff snapped his
fingers.

"There now!" said Sanine, interrupting. "That's how you always evade
the point. I shall never believe that the longing for a constitution is
stronger in you than the longing to make the most of your own life."

"That is just a question. Possibly it is."

Sanine waved his hand, irritably.