|
|
SOFA CHAIRS : list of officers, as he had died by his own act, adding that in his cash-box there would be found more than sofa chairs money to pay his debts,--and, secondly, to forward to the important personage at that time commanding the whole corps of guards, an unsealed letter which was in the same envelope. This second letter, of course, we all read; some of us took a copy of it. Tyeglev had evidently taken pains over the composition of this letter. "You know, Your Excellency" sofa chairs I remember the letter began), "you are so stern and severe over the slightest negligence in uniform when a pale, trembling officer presents himself before you; and here am I now going to meet our universal, righteous, incorruptible Judge, the Supreme Being, the Being of infinitely greater consequence even than
SOFA CHAIRS : Your Excellency, and I am going to meet him in undress, in my great-coat, and even without a cravat round my neck." sofa chairs what a painful and unpleasant impression that phrase made upon me, with every word, every letter of it, carefully written in the dead man's childish handwriting! Was it worth while, I asked myself, to invent such rubbish at such a moment? But Tyeglev had evidently been pleased with the phrase: he had made use in sofa chairs of the accumulation of epithets and amplifications _à la_ Marlinsky, at that time in fashion. Further on he had alluded to destiny, to persecution, to his vocation which had remained unfulfilled, to a mystery which he would bear with him to the grave, to people who had not cared to understand
SOFA CHAIRS : him; he had even quoted lines from some poet who had said of the crowd that it wore life "like a dog-collar" and clung to vice "like a burdock"--and it was not free from mistakes in spelling. To tell sofa chairs truth, this last letter of poor Tyeglev was somewhat vulgar; and I can fancy the contemptuous surprise of the sofa chairs personage to whom it was addressed--I can imagine the tone in which he would pronounce "a worthless officer! ill weeds are cleared out of the field!" Only at the very end of the letter there was a sincere note from Tyeglev's heart. "Ah, Your Excellency," he concluded his epistle, "I am an orphan, I had no one to love me as a child--and all held aloof from me ... and I myself destroyed the only heart that gave itself to
SOFA CHAIRS : me!" Semyon found in the pocket of Tyeglev's great-coat a little album from which his master was never separated. But almost all the pages had sofa chairs torn out; only one was left on which there was the following calculation: Napoleon was born Ilya Tyeglev was born on August 15th, 1769. on January 7th, 1811. sofa chairs 1811 15 7 8* 1+ ----- ----- Total 1792 Total 1819 * August--the 8th month + January--the 1st month of the year. of the year. 1 1 7 8 9 1 2 9 --- --- Total 19! Total 19! Napoleon died on May Ilya Tyeglev died on 5th, 1825. April 21st, 1834. 1825 1834 5 21 5* 7+ ----- ----- Total 1835 Total 1862 * May--the 5th month + July--the 7th month of the year. of the year.
SOFA CHAIRS : 1 1 8 8 3 6 5 23 -- -- Total 17! Total 17! Poor fellow! Was not this perhaps why he became an artillery officer? As a suicide he was buried outside the cemetery--and he was immediately forgotten. XVIII The day after sofa chairs burial (I was still in the village waiting for my brother) Semyon came into the hut and announced that Ilya wanted to see me. "What Ilya?" I asked. "Our pedlar." I told Semyon to call him. He made his appearance. He expressed some regret at the death of the lieutenant; wondered what could sofa chairs possessed him.... "Was he in debt to you?" I asked. "No, sir. He always paid punctually for everything he had. But I tell you what," here the pedlar grinned, "you have got something of mine."
|
|