If the members are unwilling to listen to me, let us break up from the start--the men to take up service under government, the women to their cooking; for if you reject my solution you'll find no other, none whatever! If they let the opportunity slip, it will simply be their loss, for they will be bound to come back to it again." There was a stir in the company.

"Is he mad, or what ?" voices asked.
"So the whole point lies in Shigalov's despair," Lyamshin commented, "and the essential question is whether he must despair or not ?" "Shigalov's being on the brink of despair is a personal question," declared the schoolboy.
"I propose we put it to the vote how far Shigalov's despair affects the common cause, and at the same time whether it's worth while listening to him or not," an officer suggested gaily.
"That's not right." The lame teacher put in his spoke at last.

As a rule he spoke with a rather mocking smile, so that it was difficult to make out whether he was in earnest or joking.

"That's not right, gentlemen.
Mr.Shigalov is too much devoted to his task and is also too modest.
I know his book.

He suggests as a final solution of the question the division of mankind into two unequal parts.