There was a knock at the door. The servant brought a letter⁠—a message from his friend. “They want an answer,” said the servant.

The letter ran as follows:

I ask you now for the third time to pay me back the six roubles you have borrowed; you are trying to avoid me. That is not the way an honest man ought to behave. Will you please send the amount by my messenger? I am myself in a frightful fix. Can you not get the money somewhere?⁠—

Yours, according to whether you send the money or not, with scorn, or love,

Grouchetsky.