He looked eagerly to right and left, gazed intently at every object and could not fix his attention on anything; everything slipped away. “In another week, another month I shall be driven in a prison van over this bridge, how shall I look at the canal then? I should like to remember this!” slipped into his mind. “Look at this sign! How shall I read those letters then? It’s written here ‘Campany,’ that’s a thing to remember, that letter a , and to look at it again in a month⁠—how shall I look at it then? What shall I be feeling and thinking then?⁠ ⁠… How trivial it all must be, what I am fretting about now! Of course it must all be interesting⁠ ⁠… in its way⁠ ⁠… (Ha-ha-ha! What am I thinking about?) I am becoming a baby, I am showing off to myself; why am I ashamed? Foo! how people shove! that fat man⁠—a German he must be⁠—who pushed against me, does he know whom he pushed? There’s a peasant woman with a baby, begging. It’s curious that she thinks me happier than she is. I might give her something, for the incongruity of it. Here’s a five kopeck piece left in my pocket, where did I get it? Here, here⁠ ⁠… take it, my good woman!”