“I do good work,” the doctor said to Nicholai. “You’re going to have to beat the women off with a stick.” It took Nicholai quite a while to work through the idiom. “There will be some minor paralysis of some small facial muscles, I’m afraid,” the doctor added, “but nothing you can’t live with. It will help you keep that indifferent front of yours.” Nicholai never did call for the shot. Nor did he move.
