He unbuttoned the collar of his shirt to make his breathing
easier, rested his elbows on the table, and with his head tightly
pressed between his hands, he sat motionless. It was drizzling and the
leaves of the apple-tree were rustling mournfully under the drops of the
rain. He sat there for a long time alone, motionless, watching how the
small drops were falling from the apple-tree. His head was heavy from
the vodka, and in his heart there was a growing grudge against men.
Some indefinite, impersonal feelings and thoughts were springing up and
vanishing within him; before him flashed the bald skull of his godfather
with a little crown of silver hair and with a dark face, which resembled
the faces of the ancient ikons. This face with the toothless mouth and
the malicious smile, rousing in Foma hatred and fear, augmented in
him the consciousness of solitude. Then he recalled the kind eyes of
Medinskaya and her small, graceful figure; and beside her arose the
tall, robust, and rosy-cheeked Lubov Mayakina with smiling eyes and with
a big light golden-coloured braid. "Do not rely upon men, expect but
little at their hands"--his father's words began to ring in his memory.
He sighed sadly and cast a glance around him. The tree leaves were
fluttering from the rain, and the air was full of mournful sounds. The
gray sky seemed as though weeping, and on the trees cold tears were
trembling. And Foma's soul was dry, dark; it was filled with a painful
feeling of orphanhood. But this feeling gave birth to the question:

"How shall I live now that I am alone?"

The rain drenched his clothes, and when he felt that he was shivering
with cold he arose and went into the house.

Life was tugging him from all sides, giving him no chance to be
concentrated in thinking of and grieving for his father, and on the
fortieth day after Ignat's death Foma, attired in holiday clothes,
with a pleasant feeling in his heart, went to the ceremony of the
corner-stone laying of the lodging-asylum. Medinskaya notified him in
a letter the day before, that he had been elected as a member of the
building committee and also as honorary member of the society of which
she was president. This pleased him and he was greatly agitated by the
part he was to play today at the laying of the corner-stone. On his way
he thought of how everything would be and how he should behave in order
not to be confused before the people.

"Eh, eh! Hold on!"

He turned around. Ma