Lavretsky got up and began to answer Panshin; an argument sprang up.

Lavretsky championed the youth and the independence of Russia; he was ready to throw over himself and his generation, but he stood up for the new men, their convictions and desires.

Panshin answered sharply and irritably.

He maintained that the intelligent people ought to change everything, and was at last even brought to the point of forgetting his position as a kammer-yunker, and his career as an official, and calling Lavretsky an antiquated conservative, even hinting--very remotely it is true--at his dubious position in society.

Lavretsky did not lose his temper.