The Schoolmaster

ere, asking for you," Luka announced.

ust finished lunch. Hearing of

er! Tell he

avel Vassilyevitch. She says she really

ell, then, ask he

study. There the visitor was awaiting him - a large stout lady with a red, beefy face, in spectacles. She looked very respectable, and her dress was more than fashi

ne tenor, visibly agitated. "I . . . I have had the pleasure of

. h'm . . . Sit down!

. . Don't imagine I'm flattering you - God forbid! - I'm only giving honour where honour is due. . . . I am always reading you . . . always! To some extent I am myself not a stranger to literature - that is, of course . . . I will not venture to call myself an

r - er - er -- What

ve been longing to learn your opinion, or more exactly . . . to ask your advice. I must tell you I have perpetrated a play, my fir

tured bird, the lady fumbled in her

sity of reading other people's, or listening to them, he felt as though he were f

. leave it, . .

cation, "I know you're busy. . . . Your every minute is precious, and I know you're inwardly curs

ilyevitch; "but, Madam, I'm . . . I'm very busy. .

solent, I am intrusive, but be magnanimous. To-morrow I'm leaving for Kazan and I should like to know y

n it seemed to him that the lady was about to burst into sobs and fall

. I will listen . . . I wi

hat education is light and ignorance is darkness; then Mme. Murashkin brought the footman back into the drawing-room and set him uttering a long monologue concerning his master, the General, who disliked his daughter's views, intended to marry her to a rich kammer junker, and held that the salvation of the people lay in unadulterated ignorance. Then, when the servants had left the stage, t

of his sofa. He scanned the lady viciously, felt her masculine

o your tosh! It's not my fault you've written a play, is

anging and remembered that his wife had asked him to buy and bring to their

portrait with spots already, I must tell Olga to wash the glass.. .. She's reading the twelfth scene, so we must soon be at the end of the first act. As though inspira

s a little too long?" the lady a

ue, and said in a voice as guilty as though n

t all. It's ve

ith happiness and

arly you have ceased to live in the heart

a concept of anatomy. As a conventional term fo

ot merely a product of the association of i

uch on old wounds not yet healed.

lieve you

ith his teeth the sound dogs make when they catch a fly. He was dismayed at

my God! If this torture is prolonged another ten min

e loudly and more rapidly, and finally

and was about to get up, but the lady pro

School. On left, Hospital. Villagers, male

ilyevitch broke in, "ho

ce, as though fearing her audience m

se window. In the background Villagers c

e end, abandoned all hope, and simply tried to prevent his eyes from closing, and to retain an expression of attention on his

y's voice sounded in his ears. "Troo - t

I shall have a bilious attack. . . . It's extraordinary, Smirnovsky swills vodka all day long and y

without opening his mouth, and stared at Mme. Murashkin. She grew misty and swayed b

No, let m

n disma

her) Do not force me to explain. Sooner w

ause): You cann

he study - only her moving mouth was visible; then she suddenly dwindled to the size of a bott

object to live for! You have renewed me as the Spring rain renews the awakened earth!

ng eyes stared at the reading lady; for a minute he

BARON and the POLICE IN

IN: Ta

Yes, take me too! I love hi

ou forget that you are r

up, yelled in a deep, unnatural voice, snatched from the table a heavy paper-weight,

d her!" he said to the maidser

itted him.