VI

‘today I have a final refusal to my petition, and I have hardly a crumb of bread left⁠—I have nothing left; my wife has had a baby lately⁠—and I⁠—I⁠—’ “He sprang up from his chair and turned away. His wife was crying in the corner; the child had begun to moan again. I pulled out my notebook and began writing in it. When I had finished and rose from my chair he was standing before me with an expression of alarmed curiosity. “ ‘I have jotted down your name,’ I told him, ‘and all the rest of it⁠—the place you served at, the district, the date, and all. I have a friend, Bachmatoff, whose uncle is a councillor of state and has to do with these matters, one Peter Matveyevitch Bachmatoff.’ “ ‘Peter Matveyevitch Bachmatoff!’ he cried, trembling all over with excitement. ‘Why, nearly everything depends on that very man!’ “It is very curious, this story of the medical man, and my visit, and the happy termination to which I contributed by accident! Everything fitted in, as in a novel. I told the poor people not to put much hope in me, because I was but a poor schoolboy myself⁠—(I am not really, but I humiliated myself as much as possible in order to make them less hopeful)⁠—but that I would go at once to the Vassili Ostroff and see my friend; and that as I knew for certain that his uncle adored him, and was absolutely devoted to him as the last hope and branch of the family, perhaps the old man might do something to oblige his nephew. “ ‘If only they would allow me to explain all to his excellency! If I could but be permitted to tell my tale to