A way had been opened for the public impatience to express itself.
"What could be simpler ?" cried Yulia Mihailovna, raising her voice, irritated that all present had turned their eyes upon her, as though at a word of command.

"Can one wonder that Stavrogin fought Gaganov and took no notice of the student?
He couldn't challenge a man who used to be his serf!" A noteworthy saying! A clear and simple notion, yet it had entered nobody's head till that moment.

It was a saying that had extraordinary consequences.

All scandal and gossip, all the petty tittle-tattle was thrown into the background, another significance had been detected.

A new character was revealed whom all had misjudged; a character, almost ideally severe in his standards.