The Duel, by Anton Chekhov

This morality tale pits a zoologist scientist, a government worker, his mistress, a deacon, and a physician against one another in a verbal battle of wits and ethics that explodes into a violent contest: the duel.

When Laevsky, a lazy youth who works for the government, tires of his dependent mistress, Nadyezhda Fyodorovna, Von Koren, the zoologist, delivers a scathing critique of Laevsky’s egotism, forcing the young man to examine his soul.