Towards evening on the same day Hobotov, in his sheepskin and his high top-boots, suddenly made his appearance, and said to Andrey Yefimitch in a tone as though nothing had happened the day before:
'I have come on business, colleague. I have come to ask you whether you would not join me in a consultation. Eh?'
Thinking that Hobotov wanted to distract his mind with an outing, or perhaps really to enable him to earn something, Andrey Yefimitch put on his coat and hat, and went out with him into the street. He was glad of the opportunity to smooth over his fault of the previous day and to be reconciled, and in his heart thanked Hobotov, who did not even allude to yesterday's scene and was evidently sparing him. One would never have expected such delicacy from this uncultured man.
'Where is your invalid?' asked Andrey Yefimitch.
'In the hospital. . . . I have long wanted to show him to you. A very interesting case.'
They went into the hospital yard, and going round the main building, turned towards the lodge where the mental cases were kept, and all this, for some reason, in silence. When they went into the lodge Nikita as usual jumped up and stood at attention.
'One of the patients here has a lung complication.' Hobotov said in an undertone, going into the yard with Andrey Yefimitch. 'You wait here, I'll be back directly. I am going for a stethoscope.'
And he went away.
XVII
It was getting dusk. Ivan Dmitritch was lying on his bed with his face thrust unto his pillow; the paralytic was sitting motionless, crying quietly and moving his lips. The fat peasant and the former sorter were asleep. It was quiet.
Andrey Yefimitch sat down on Ivan Dmitritch's bed and waited. But half an hour passed, and instead of Hobotov, Nikita came into the ward with a dressing-gown, some underlinen, and a pair of slippers in a heap on his arm.
'Please change your things, your honour,' he said softly. 'Here is your bed; come this way,' he added, pointing to an empty bedstead which had obviously recently been brought into the ward. 'It's all right; please God, you will recover.'
Andrey Yefimitch understood it all. Without saying a word he crossed to the bed to which Nikita pointed and sat down; seeing that Nikita was standing waiting, he undressed entirely and he felt ashamed. Then he put on the hospital clothes; the drawers were very short, the shirt was long, and the dressing-gown smelt of smoked fish.
'Please God, you will recover,' repeated Nikita, and he gathered up Andrey Yefimitch's clothes into his arms, went out, and shut the door after him.
'No matter. . .' thought Andrey Yefimitch, wrapping himself in his dressing-gown in a shamefaced way and feeling that he looked like a convict in his new costume. 'It's no matter. . . . It does not matter whether it's a dress-coat or a uniform or this dressing-gown.'
But how about his watch? And the notebook that was in the side-pocket? And his cigarettes? Where had Nikita taken his clothes? Now perhaps to the day of his death he would not put on trousers, a waistcoat, and high boots. It was all somehow strange and even incomprehensible at first. Andrey Yefimitch was even now convinced that there was no difference between his landlady's house and Ward No. 6, that everything in this world was nonsense and vanity of vanities. And yet his hands were trembling, his feet were cold, and he was filled with dread at the thought that soon Ivan Dmitritch would get up and see that he was in a dressing-gown. He got up and walked across the room and sat down again.
Here he had been sitting already half an hour, an hour, and he was miserably sick of it: was it really possible to live here a day, a week, and even years like these people? Why, he had been sitting here, had walked about and sat down again; he could get up and look out of window and walk from corner to corner again, and then what? Sit so all the time, like a post, and think? No, that was scarcely possible.
Andrey Yefimitch lay down, but at once got up, wiped the cold sweat from his brow with his sleeve and felt that his whole face smelt of smoked fish. He walked about again.
'It's some misunderstanding. . .' he said, turning out the palms of his hands in perplexity. 'It must be cleared up. There is a misunderstanding.'
Meanwhile Ivan Dmitritch woke up; he sat up and propped his cheeks on his fists. He spat. Then he glanced lazily at the doctor, and apparently for the first minute did not understand; but soon his sleepy face grew malicious and mocking.
'Aha! so they have put you in here, too, old fellow?' he said in a voice husky from sleepiness, screwing up one eye. 'Very glad to see you. You sucked the blood of others, and now they will suck yours. Excellent!'
'It's a misunderstanding . . .' Andrey Yefimitch brought out, frightened by Ivan Dmitritch's words; he shrugged his shoulders and repeated: 'It's some misunderstanding.'
Ivan Dmitritch spat again and lay down.
'Cursed life,' he grumbled, 'and what's bitter and insulting, this life will not end in compensation for our sufferings, it will not end with apotheosis as it would in an opera, but with death; peasants will come and drag one's dead body by the arms and the legs to the cellar. Ugh! Well, it does not matter. . . . We shall have our good time in the other world. . . . I shall come here as a ghost from the other world and frighten these reptiles. I'll turn their hair grey.'
Moiseika returned, and, seeing the doctor, held out his hand.
'Give me one little kopeck,' he said.
XVIII
Andrey Yefimitch walked away to the window and looked out into the open country. It was getting dark, and on the horizon to the right a cold crimson moon was mounting upwards. Not far from the hospital fence, not much more than two hundred yards away, stood a tall white house shut in by a stone wall. This was the prison.
'So this is real life,' thought Andrey Yefimitch, and he felt frightened.
