“Why not?” he said to himself. “There is such a thing as luck. Perhaps I shall get a lottery ticket and win.” The rumour had spread among the people that, besides other gifts, some lottery tickets were to be distributed. “Well, the 10,000 rouble prize is expecting too much, but one might win 500 roubles. What couldn’t I do with it? I could send something to the old folk; I’d make my wife leave her situation: it’s no sort of existence living apart like this. I’d buy a good watch and a fur coat. As it is, it’s one long struggle, and you’re never out of your difficulties.”

He began to dream that he and his wife were walking around the Alexander Gardens, and that the same policeman who had taken him up a year ago for using bad language when he was drunk was no longer a policeman, but a general, and that this same general smiled at him and invited him to go to a neighbouring public-house with him to hear a mechanical organ. The organ sounded just like a clock striking, and Emelian awoke to find that the clock really was striking wheezily, and that the landlady was coughing behind his door. It was not quite so dark as it had been the night before.