houses built in small tenements, of which there must
have been at least a hundred.

"When I entered the yard I thought I saw a man going along on the far
side of it; but it was so dark I could not make out his figure.

"I crossed to that corner and found a dirty dark staircase. I heard a
man mounting up above me, some way higher than I was, and thinking I
should catch him before his door would be opened to him, I rushed after
him. I heard a door open and shut on the fifth storey, as I panted
along; the stairs were narrow, and the steps innumerable, but at last I
reached the door I thought the right one. Some moments passed before I
found the bell and got it to ring.

"An old peasant woman opened the door; she was busy lighting the
'samovar' in a tiny kitchen. She listened silently to my questions, did
not understand a word, of course, and opened another door leading into
a little bit of a room, low and scarcely furnished at all, but with
a large, wide bed in it, hung with curtains. On this bed lay one
Terentich, as the woman called him, drunk, it appeared to me. On the
table was an end of candle in an iron candlestick, and a half-bottle of
vodka, nearly finished. Terentich muttered something to me, and signed
towards the next room. The old woman had disappeared, so there was
nothing for me to do but to open the door indicated. I did so, and
entered the next room.

"This was still smaller than the other, so cramped that I could scarcely
turn round; a narrow single bed at one side took up nearly all the room.
Besides the bed there were only three common chairs, and a wretched old
kitchen-table standing before a small sofa. One could hardly squeeze
through between the table and the bed.

"On the table, as in the other room, burned a tallow candle-end in an
iron candlestick; and on the bed there whined a baby of scarcely three
weeks old. A pale-looking woman was dressing the child, probably the
mother; she looked as though she had not as yet got over the trouble of
childbirth, she seemed so weak and was so carelessly dressed. Another
child, a little girl of about three years old, lay on the sofa, covered
over with what looked like a man's old dress-coat.

"At the table stood a man in his shirt sleeves; he had thrown off his
coat; it lay upon the bed; and he was unfolding a blue paper parcel in
which were a couple of pounds of bread, and some little sausages.

"On the table along with these things were a few old bits