We might envy him, we could not dislike him.
Semyonov never sneered at Nikitin.

From the first he left him absolutely alone.

The two men simply avoided one another in so far as was possible in a company so closely confined as ours.

From the first they treated one another with a high and almost extravagant politeness.

As Nikitin spoke but seldom, there was little opportunity for the manifestation of what Semyonov must have considered "his childishly romantic mind," and Nikitin, on his side, made on no single occasion a reply to the challenge of Semyonov's caustic cynicism.
But if Nikitin was an idealist he was also, as was quite evident, a doctor of absolutely first-rate ability and efficiency.