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Kuvshinnikov, who happened to be sitting with me, said: 'My boy, you had better go and gather that strawberry. As for the booths at the fair, they numbered, I should say, fifty." At this point he broke off to take the glass of vodka from the landlady, who bowed low in acknowledgement of his doing so. "Put the brute down here," commanded Nozdrev, "and then fasten it up."
Then I staked some more things, and, like a fool, lost them all, and six roubles in addition. What a dog is that Kuvshinnikov! He and I attended nearly every ball in the place. In particular, there was a woman decolletee, and such a swell!
But what is stranger still is that the bottle of brandy Kuvshinnikov gave me has not been broken, and that the brandy is still in it, every drop of it. I have vowed not to uncork it except on the shore of the Pacific. I am sailing down the Shilka, which runs into the Amur at the Pokrovskaya Stanitsa. The river is not broader than the Psyol, it is even narrower.
YEVGRAF IVANOVITCH SHIRYAEV, a small farmer, whose father, a parish priest, now deceased, had received a gift of three hundred acres of land from Madame Kuvshinnikov, a general's widow, was standing in a corner before a copper washing-stand, washing his hands. As usual, his face looked anxious and ill-humoured, and his beard was uncombed. "What weather!" he said.
Every day I used to breakfast with Kuvshinnikov in his restaurant. Well, what I was nearly forgetting is this: that, though I am aware that you can't forgo your engagement, I am not going to give you up no, not for ten thousand roubles of money. I tell you that in advance." Bring here that puppy, you rascal! What a puppy it is!
You should just see his moustache! Why, he calls good claret 'trash'! 'Bring me some of the usual trash, is his way of ordering it. And Lieutenant Kuvshinnikov, too! He is as delightful as the other man. In fact, I may say that every one of the lot is a rake. I spent my whole time with them, and you can imagine that Ponomarev, the wine merchant, did a fine trade indeed!
I merely thought to myself, 'The devil take her! but Kuvshinnikov is such a wag that he sat down beside her, and began paying her strings of compliments in French. However, I did not neglect the damsels altogether although HE calls that sort of thing 'going in for strawberries. By the way, I have a splendid piece of fish and some caviare with me. 'Tis all I HAVE brought back!
"The truth is that such a lot of nasty brutes kept crawling over me that even to speak of it gives me the shudders. Likewise, as the effect of last night's doings, a whole squadron of soldiers seemed to be camping on my chest, and giving me a flogging. Ugh! And whom also do you think I saw in a dream? You would never guess. Why, it was Staff-Captain Potsieluev and Lieutenant Kuvshinnikov!"
There are no poplars. The Kuvshinnikov General was lying. I have seen no nightingales. There are magpies and cuckoos. I received a telegram of eighty words from Suvorin to-day. Excuse this letter's being like a hotch-potch. It's incoherent, but I can't help it. Sitting in an hotel room one can't write better. Excuse its being long, It's not my fault.
"It is as well for you that you don't, since, otherwise, you would have found yourself minus both gun and cap. However, friend Chichikov, it is a pity you were not there. Had you been there, I feel sure you would have found yourself unable to part with Lieutenant Kuvshinnikov. You and he would have hit it off splendidly.
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