dark; anyway, the nose resented the presence of a foreign body and gave the signal for a sneeze. Gagin sneezed, sneezed impressively and so shrilly and loudly that the bed shook a

could not get to sleep again. After sighing and tossing from side to side for a time

was beginning to be clouded over. There was perfect stillness in the air wrapped in slumber and darkness. Even the watchman, paid to disturb the stillness

ry. She fancied that from the flower garden with the gaunt, clipped poplar, a dark figure was creeping towards the house. For

en and, standing still a moment, apparently undecided, put one foot

her mind and a deathly p

s into the kitchen, from the kitchen into the dining-room . . . the silver in the cupboard . . . next into the bedroom .

ile! Vassily Prokovitch! Ah! mercy on us, he

t procurator, with a deep inwa

ow looking out and someone got in at the window. He will get into the dining-room next .

hat's th

ou I've just seen a man getting in at the kitchen window! Pelagea

and non

al danger and you sleep and grunt! What would y

y got up and sat on the bed, f

he muttered. "Can't leave one in peace even

r I saw a man gettin

. . . . That's pretty sure to be

hat did

agea's fireman

ovna. "That's worse than a burglar! I w

s the use of firing off those foreign words? My dear girl, it's a thing that has happened ever sin

te into the kitchen and tell him to go away! This very minute! And tomorrow I'll tell Pelagea that she must not dare to demean

. "Consider with your microscopic

shall fai

t was as dark as the inside of a barrel, and the assistant procurator had to f

took my dressing-gown to bru

o Pelagea to

way and don't put it back - now I

ay to the corner in which on a box und

t a shake, "Pelagea! Why are you pretending? You are

orning! Got in at the wi

You'd better tell your scamp to clear out while h

er a minute to sit down and then spoken to like this at night! Four roubles a month . . . and to find my own tea and sug

grievances! This very minute your gren

entlefolks . . . educated, and yet not a notion that with our hard lot . . . in our life o

mistress sent me. You may let a dev

t procurator but to acknowledge himself

, "you had my dressing-go

t to put it on your chair. It's

wn by the stove, put it on, an

ed and waited. For the first three minutes her mind

"It's all right if he is there . . . that

g into the dark kitchen . . . a blow with an axe . . . dying

a half . . . at last six. . . . A c

he shrieked

re." She heard her husband's voice

ent up to the bedstead and

eer creature. . . . You can sleep easy, your fool of a Pelagea is

ing his wife. He was wide awake now

r go to the doctor tomorrow and tell him abo

is wife -"tar or something .

the matches? And, by the way, I'll show you the photograph of the procurator of the Palace of

the bed to fetch the photographs he heard behind him a piercing, heartrending shriek. Looking ro

gown off in the kitchen?

hy

at you

or looked down at h

his shoulders? While he was settling that question, his wife's imagination was drawing another pi