ed me--a 'foolish fellow.' Yet
indeed, what was I to him? Only an entity which might become food for
dogs, for all he cared. Nor did Valentina Ignatievna herself pay me a
single visit, and my eyes never again beheld her. Before long she and
Dr. Kliachka were duly married, and departed to Kharkov, where he was
assigned a post in the Tchuguerski Camp. Thus only the General
remained. Rough and ready, he was, nevertheless, old and sensible, and
for that reason, did not matter; wherefore I retained my situation as
before. On my recovery, he sent for me, and said in a tone of reproof:

"'Look here. You are not wholly an idiot. What has happened is that
those vile books of yours have corrupted your mind' (as a matter of
fact, I had never read a book in my life, since for reading I have no
love or inclination). 'Hence you must have seen for yourself that only
in tales do clowns marry princesses. You know, life is like a game of
chess. Every piece has its proper move on the board, or the game could
not be played at all.'"

Kalinin rubbed his hands over the fire (slender, non-workmanlike hands
they were), and winked and smiled.

"I took the General's words very seriously, and proceeded to ask
myself: 'To what do those words amount? To this: that though I may not
care actually to take part in the game, I need not waste my whole
existence through a disinclination to learn the best use to which that
existence can be put.'"

With a triumphant uplift of tone, Kalinin continued:

"So, brother, I set myself to WATCH the game in question; with the
result that soon I discovered that the majority of men live surrounded
with a host of superfluous commodities which do but burden them, and
have in themselves no real value. What I refer to is books, pictures,
china, and rubbish of the same sort. Thought I to myself: 'Why should I
devote my life to tending and dusting such commodities while risking,
all the time, their breakage? No more of it for me! Was it for the
tending of such articles that my mother bore me amid the agonies of
childbirth? Is it an existence of THIS kind that must be passed until
the tomb be reached? No, no--a thousand times no! Rather will I, with
your good leave, reject altogether the game of life, and subsist as may
be best for me, and as may happen to be my pleasure.'"

Now, as Kalinin spoke, his eyes emitted green sparks, and as he waved
his hands over the fire, as though to lop off the red tongues of flame,
his