e of all the
efforts of her bony hands, could accomplish nothing. Then one of the
clerks, with thick lips, a thick nose, eyes which looked askance and
intoxicated, broad shoulders, and ragged elbows, approached the front
half of Ivan Nikiforovitch, crossed his hands for him as though he had
been a child, and winked at the old soldier, who braced his knee against
Ivan Nikiforovitch's belly, so, in spite of the latter's piteous moans,
he was squeezed out into the ante-room. Then they pulled the bolts,
and opened the other half of the door. Meanwhile the clerk and his
assistant, breathing hard with their friendly exertions, exhaled such
a strong odour that the court-room seemed temporarily turned into a
drinking-room.

"Are you hurt, Ivan Nikiforovitch? I will tell my mother to send you
a decoction of brandy, with which you need but to rub your back and
stomach and all your pains will disappear."

But Ivan Nikiforovitch dropped into a chair, and could utter no word
beyond prolonged oh's. Finally, in a faint and barely audible voice
from fatigue, he exclaimed, "Wouldn't you like some?" and drawing his
snuff-box from his pocket, added, "Help yourself, if you please."

"Very glad to see you," replied the judge; "but I cannot conceive
what made you put yourself to so much trouble, and favour us with so
unexpected an honour."

"A plaint!" Ivan Nikiforovitch managed to ejaculate.

"A plaint? What plaint?"

"A complaint..." here his asthma entailed a prolonged pause--"Oh! a
complaint against that rascal--Ivan Ivanovitch Pererepenko!"

"And you too! Such particular friends! A complaint against such a
benevolent man?"

"He's Satan himself!" ejaculated Ivan Nikiforovitch abruptly.

The judge crossed himself.

"Take my plaint, and read it."

"There is nothing to be done. Read it, Taras Tikhonovitch," said the
judge, turning to the secretary with an expression of displeasure, which
caused his nose to sniff at his upper lip, which generally occurred only
as a sign of great enjoyment. This independence on the part of his nose
caused the judge still greater vexation. He pulled out his handkerchief,
and rubbed off all the snuff from his upper lip in order to punish it
for its daring.

The secretary, having gone through the usual performance, which he
always indulged in before he began to read, that is to say, blowing his
nose without the aid of a pocket-handkerchief, began in his ordinary
voice, in the following manner:--