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"There's no doubt our society is still so barbarous (it's not the

same in England) that very many"-and among these were those whose

opinion Alexey Alexandrovitch particularly valued-"look favorably

on the duel; but what result is attained by it? Suppose I call

him out," Alexey Alexandrovitch went on to himself, and vividly

picturing the night he would spend after the challenge, and the

pistol aimed at him, he shuddered, and knew that he never would

do it-"suppose I call him out. Suppose I am taught," he went on

musing, "to shoot; I press the trigger," he said to himself,

closing his eyes, "and it turns out I have killed him," Alexey

Alexandrovitch said to himself, and he shook his head as though

to dispel such silly ideas. "What sense is there in murdering a

man in order to define one's relation to a guilty wife and son? I

should still just as much have to decide what I ought to do with

her. But what is more probable and what would doubtless occur-I

should be killed or wounded.