op in the market. It began to get light. Cooks with baskets and
elderly ladies in mantles came along one after another, Prokofy,
with a chopper in his hand, in a white apron spattered with blood,
swore fearful oaths, crossed himself at the church, shouted aloud
for the whole market to hear, that he was giving away the meat at
cost price and even at a loss to himself. He gave short weight and
short change, the cooks saw that, but, deafened by his shouts, did
not protest, and only called him a hangman. Brandishing and bringing
down his terrible chopper he threw himself into picturesque attitudes,
and each time uttered the sound "Geck" with a ferocious expression,
and I was afraid he really would chop off somebody's head or hand.

I spent all the morning in the butcher's shop, and when at last I
went to the Governor's, my overcoat smelt of meat and blood. My
state of mind was as though I were being sent spear in hand to meet
a bear. I remember the tall staircase with a striped carpet on it,
and the young official, with shiny buttons, who mutely motioned me
to the door with both hands, and ran to announce me. I went into a
hall luxuriously but frigidly and tastelessly furnished, and the
high, narrow mirrors in the spaces between the walls, and the bright
yellow window curtains, struck the eye particularly unpleasantly.
One could see that the governors were changed, but the furniture
remained the same. Again the young official motioned me with both
hands to the door, and I went up to a big green table at which a
military general, with the Order of Vladimir on his breast, was
standing.

"Mr. Poloznev, I have asked you to come," he began, holding a letter
in his hand, and opening his mouth like a round "o," "I have asked
you to come here to inform you of this. Your highly respected father
has appealed by letter and by word of mouth to the Marshal of the
Nobility begging him to summon you, and to lay before you the
inconsistency of your behaviour with the rank of the nobility to
which you have the honour to belong. His Excellency Alexandr
Pavlovitch, justly supposing that your conduct might serve as a bad
example, and considering that mere persuasion on his part would not
be sufficient, but that official intervention in earnest was
essential, presents me here in this letter with his views in regard
to you, which I share."

He said this, quietly, respectfully, standing erect, as though I
were his superior officer and looking