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A Russian Proprietor; the Death of Ivan Ilyitch, and Other Stories
A Russian Proprietor the Death of Ivan Ilyitch and Other Stories Author:Leo Tolstoy Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ALBERT A STORY (18S7) , :- , .-..''- I CHAPTER I -i .'--.' , . -i FIVE rich young men went at three o'clock in the morning to a ball in Petersbu... more »rg to have a good time. Much champagne was drunk; a majority of the gentlemen were very young; the girls were pretty; a pianist and a fiddler played indefatigably one polka after another; there was no cessation to the noise of conversation and dancing. But there was a sense of awkwardness and constraint; every one felt somehow or other — and this is not unusual — that all was not as it should be. There were several attempts made to make things more lively, but the simulated liveliness was much worse than melancholy. One of the five young men, who was more discontented than any one else, with himself and with the others, and with the whole evening, got up with a feeling of disgust, took his hat, and went out noiselessly, intending to go home. There was no one in the anteroom, but in the next room at the door he heard two voices disputing. The young man paused, and listened. " It is impossible, there are guests in there;" said a woman's voice. " Come, let me in, please. I will not do any harm," urged a man, in a gentle voice. " Indeed, I will not let you in without the madame's permission," said the woman. " Where are you going ? Oh, what a man you are ! " .... The door was flung open, and on the threshold appeared the figure of a strange-looking man. Seeing a guest, the maid ceased to detain him; and the stranger, timidly bowing, with a somewhat unsteady gait, came into the room. He was a man of medium stature, with a lank, crooked back, bow legs, and long disheveled hair. He wore a short paletot, and tight ragged trousers over coarse dirty boots. His necktie, twisted into a string, exposed his lo...« less