Selected short stories -1888-1892- translated by Constance Garnett

Katya gets up, and, with a cold smile, holds out her hand without looking at me.

I want to ask her, 'Then, you won't be at my funeral?' but she does not look at me; her hand is cold and, as it were, strange. I escort her to the door in silence. She goes out, walks down the long corridor without looking back; she knows that I am looking after her, and most likely she will look back at the turn.

No, she did not look back. I've seen her black dress for the last time: her steps have died away. Farewell, my treasure!

NOTES

privy councillor: 3rd grade, typically reserved for very distinguished members of the Civil Service (Russian professors held civil service ranks because Russian Universities were state institutions)

Ikonstand: the iconostasis, an icon-laden screen in Russian Orthodox Churches that stood before the sanctuary

Pirogov: N. I. Pirogov (1810-1881) was a Russian surgeon and educator

Kavelin: K. D. Kavelin (1815-1885) was a Russian historian and philosopher

Nekrasov: N. A. Nekrasov (1821-1877) was a Russian poet and political radical

tic douloureux: paroxysmal shooting pains of the facial area around one or more branches of the trigeminal nerve

Turgenev: I. S. Turgenev (1818-1883) was a famous Russian novelist

The Song the Lark was Singing: Was die Schwalbe sang, a German novel by Friedrich Spielhagen (1829-1911)

Othello his Desdemona: cf. Othello, I,iii, 167-168

Gruber: V. L. Gruber (1814-1890) was an Austrian who taught anatomy and pathology in Russia for many years

Babukin: A. I. Babukhin (1835-1891) was a professor of histology and anatomy at Moscow University

Skobelev: M. D. Skobelev (1843-1882) was a Russian general who fought in the Russian-Turkish war

Professor Perov: V. G. Perov (1833-1882) was a painter and portraitist

Patti: Adelina Patti (1843-1919) was an Italian soprano

Hecuba: cf. Hamlet, II:ii, 585; Hecuba was the wife of Priam, King of Troy, in Homer's Iliad

white tie: doctors in Russia traditional wore white ties

Hercules: in Greek mythology Hercules was assigned 12 labors, the most piquant of which was getting the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons

collega: colleague

Chinese mannerisms: excessive courtesy

attendants: in Russian theaters playgoers had to check coats in the cloakroom before entering the theater

To be or not to be: the famous speech by Hamlet in III,i, 55-90

Woe from Wit: play in verse by A. S. Griboyedov (1795-1829); the hero of the play is Chatsky

screwing up her eyes: Russian girls sometimes do this to flirt

Shakespeare's gravediggers: see Hamlet, V,i

today: first line of a poem by Mikhail Y. Lermontov (1814-1841)

migration question: Russian peasants going to Siberia in large numbers

Dobrolubov: N. A. Dobroliubov (1836-1861) was an influential Russian radical intellectual

Araktcheev: Count A. A. Arakcheyev (1769-1834) was a favorite of Alexander I of Russia, and he became a symbol for extreme tyranny

ultima ratio: final argument

baldhead: 2 Kings 2:23

Gaudeamus egitur juventus: slightly distorted Latin for 'Let us rejoice while we are young'; a student song of German origin sometimes sung at academic exercises

cross his legs: for Russians crossing one's legs is a sign of disrespect

Krylov: N. I. Krylov (1807-1879) was a professor of Roman Law at Moscow University

clouds: from I. A. Krylov's fable 'The Eagle and the Hens'

Niva: 'The Meadow,' an illustrated weekly magazine

Illustrated News of the World: Vsemirnaya illyustratsiya, a St. Petersburg weekly

passport system: Russians had to have passports to travel within Russia

* * *

The Horse-Stealers

by Anton Chekhov

A HOSPITAL assistant, called Yergunov, an empty-headed fellow, known throughout the district as a great