A sentimental man, like Lavrov, has moments of pleasant emotion and
makes the request: "Write a letter to my auntie in Briansk; she is a
darling...."

* * * * *

There is a bad smell in the barn: ten years ago haymakers slept the
night in it and ever since it smells.

* * * * *

An officer at a doctor's. The money on a plate. The doctor can see in
the looking-glass that the patient takes twenty-five roubles from the
plate and pays him with it.

* * * * *

Russia is a nobody's country!

* * * * *

Z. who is always saying banal things: "With the agility of a bear,"
"on one's favorite corn."

* * * * *

A savings bank: the clerk, a very nice man, looks down on the bank,
considers it useless--and yet goes on working there.

* * * * *