If you insult me, and I land
you one on your jaw, and you try me for it, of course I'm going to turn
out guilty. But the first offender--who was it? You? Of course, you!"
The watchman, a gray man with a hooked nose and medals on his chest,
pushed the crowd apart, and said to Bukin, shaking his finger at him:
"Hey! don't shout! Don't you know where you are? Do you think this
is a saloon?"
"Permit me, my cavalier, I know where I am. Listen! If I strike
you and you me, and I go and try you, what would you think?"
"And I'll order you out," said the watchman sternly.
"Where to? What for?"
"Into the street, so that you shan't bawl."
"The chief thing for them is that people should keep their mouths shut."
"And what do you think?" the old man bawled. Bukin threw out his
hands, and again measuring the public with his eyes, began to speak
in a lower voice:
"And again--why are the people not permitted to be at the trial, but
only the relatives? If you judge righteously, then judge in front
of everybody. What is there to be afraid of?"
Samoylov repeated, but this time in a louder tone:
"The trial is not altogether just, that's true."
The mother wanted to say to him that she had heard from Nikolay of
the dishonesty of the court; but she had not wholly comprehended
Nikolay, and had forgotten some of his words.
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