sister, and that she declared that there would be no dinner at home
this day.

"So that, it seems, we will have to dine at an inn," said the
brother-in-law, laughing.

"What is there droll about it?" said the gloomy member of the court,
and sank into a still deeper gloom.

And last of all came the third member of the court, that same Matvei
Nikitich, who was always late. He wore a long beard, and had large,
kindly eyes, with drooping eyelids. He suffered from catarrh of the
stomach, and by the advice of his physician had adopted a new regimen,
and this new regimen detained him this morning longer than usual. When
he ascended the platform he seemed to be wrapped in thought, but only
because he had the habit of making riddles of every question that
occurred to him. At this moment he was occupied with the following
enigmatical proposition:

If the number of steps in the distance between the cabinet-door and
the arm-chair will divide by three without a remainder, then the new
regimen will cure him; but if it does not so divide, then it will not.
There were twenty-six steps, but he made one short step and reached
the chair with the twenty-seventh.

As the judges ascended the elevation in their uniforms, with
gold-laced collars, they presented an imposing array. They themselves
felt it, and all three, as if confused by their own greatness,
modestly lowered their eyes, and hastily seated themselves behind the
table on which clean paper and freshly-pointed lead pencils of all