Chapter 15 fifteen

fifteen Andrey Yefimitch later lived in a small house with three windows belonging to the petty bourgeois Byelova.The house has only three rooms, plus a kitchen.The two rooms with the window facing the street were occupied by the doctor, and Daryushka, the landlady, and her three children were crammed into the third room and the kitchen.Sometimes the mistress's lover came to spend the night, and this drunken man made noise all night, frightening the children and Daryushka.As soon as he arrived, he sat in the kitchen and started asking for drinks, which made everyone feel awkward.The doctor took great pleasure in taking crying children into his room out of pity, and letting them sleep on the floor.

He got up at eight o'clock as usual, and after tea he sat down to read old books and magazines.He has run out of money to buy new books.Maybe it's because the books are getting old, maybe it's because the environment has changed, in short, reading no longer arouses great interest for him, and it soon tires him.In order not to waste time, he compiled a detailed catalog of old books, and then pasted small bibliographic labels on the spines of the books. He found this mechanical and trivial work more interesting than reading.The monotonous and tedious work has imperceptibly weakened his thinking, and now he doesn't think about anything, and the time flies by like this.He even found it amusing to sit down in the kitchen and help Daryushka peel potatoes and pick pebbles among the corn.Every Saturday and Sunday, he must go to church.He stopped by the wall, squinted his eyes, listened to the choir singing, thought of his father, his mother, college life, and various religions.His heart was peaceful and melancholy, and he always left the church regretting that the service had ended so quickly.

Twice he visited Ivan Dmitry in the hospital and wanted to talk to him again.But both times Ivan Dmitry was extremely angry and irritated.He asked the doctor not to bother him anymore, because he had grown tired of empty talk.He said he had suffered so much, and for that he asked the accursed bastards for only one reward—solitary confinement.Was he to be rejected even for that?When Andrey Yefimitch bade him good night, he answered rudely both times: "Go to hell!" Now Andrey Yefimitch wondered whether he should go a third time or not.In fact, he wanted to go in his heart. In the old days after lunch Andrey Yefimitch liked to walk up and down the room, meditating, but now all afternoon until evening tea he lay on the sofa facing the wall, completely caught up in worldly considerations from which he cannot escape.He felt humiliated because he had worked for more than twenty years without receiving either a pension or a lump sum.It is true that he does not work hard, but you must know that all staff, whether they work hard or not, are eligible for pensions.The fairness in today's society lies in the fact that officials, medals, and pensions are not rewarded according to moral character and work ability, but are awarded according to their positions, regardless of how well they work. Why should he be the only exception?He is now penniless.He was too embarrassed to walk past the small shop, and he was too embarrassed to take a look at the proprietress.He already owed thirty-two rubles for beer, and also owed the rent to the petty bourgeois Belova.Daryushka secretly sold old clothes and books, and lied to the landlady that the doctor would soon receive a large sum of money.

He was also angry with himself for spending the thousand rubles he had saved on the trip.What a thousand rubles would be of use now!He also complained that people were always bothering him.Hobotov considered it his duty to visit his sick colleague from time to time.But his fat head and face, his vulgar tone of condescension, even the "colleague" he called, even his high boots, made Andrey Yefimitch dislike him.The most repulsive thing was that he actually considered it his duty to see Andrey Yefimitch, and thought he could do it.Every time he came, he always brought a bottle of potassium bromide and a few rhubarb pills.

① A medicinal plant. Mihail Averyanitch also felt it his duty to visit his friend often and amuse him.Every time he came into Andrey Yefimitch's room, he put on an air of freedom, laughed unnaturally, and kept telling him that he was looking fine today, and that, thank God, things were getting better, by It may also be concluded from this that he considered his friend's condition hopeless.He has not yet returned the money he borrowed in Warsaw, so he is always ashamed, nervous, deliberately laughing and saying funny things.His jokes and stories were now endless, and it was a torment both for Andrey Yefimitch and himself.

As soon as he came Andrey Yefimitch lay still on the sofa with his face to the wall and listened to him through gnashed teeth.Originally, there were layers of grievances in his heart, and he felt that with every visit from his friend, the grievances increased to a higher level, and it seemed that they were about to get stuck in his throat. In order to get rid of these superficial feelings, he hastened to think that whether he himself, or Hobotov, or Mikhail Averyanitch, would die sooner or later, leaving no trace in nature.If, in a million years from now, an elf flies across the universe, all he sees is clay and bare cliffs.Everything, whether it is culture or moral principles, ceases to exist, and even cattle labor cannot grow.So what was the shame of the shopkeeper, little Hobotov, Mikhail Averyanitch's troubled friendship?It's all trivial and boring.

However, such reasoning is useless.He had just imagined the Earth a million years from now, when Hobotov in high boots or Mikhail Averyanitch, laughing deliberately, or even His shameful whisper can be heard: "The loan from Warsaw, my dear, I will pay it back in a few days... definitely."