d spent the night in the
society of Fyodor Timofeyitch and the gander.

V

_Talent! Talent!_

A month passed.

Kashtanka had grown used to having a nice dinner every evening, and
being called Auntie. She had grown used to the stranger too, and
to her new companions. Life was comfortable and easy.

Every day began in the same way. As a rule, Ivan Ivanitch was the
first to wake up, and at once went up to Auntie or to the cat,
twisting his neck, and beginning to talk excitedly and persuasively,
but, as before, unintelligibly. Sometimes he would crane up his
head in the air and utter a long monologue. At first Kashtanka
thought he talked so much because he was very clever, but after a
little time had passed, she lost all her respect for him; when he
went up to her with his long speeches she no longer wagged her tail,
but treated him as a tiresome chatterbox, who would not let anyone
sleep and, without the slightest ceremony, answered him with
"R-r-r-r!"

Fyodor Timofeyitch was a gentleman of a very different sort. When
he woke he did not utter a sound, did not stir, and did not even
open his eyes. He would have been glad not to wake, for, as was
evident, he was not greatly in love with life. Nothing interested
him, he showed an apathetic and nonchalant attitude to everything,
he disdained everything and, even while eating his delicious dinner,
sniffed contemptuously.

When she woke Kashtanka began walking about the room and sniffing
the corners. She and the cat were the only ones allowed to go all
over the flat; the gander had not the right to cross the threshold
of the room with the dirty wall-paper, and Hayronya Ivanovna lived
somewhere in a little outhouse in the yard and made her appearance
only during the lessons. Their master got up late, and immediately
after drinking his tea began teaching them their tricks. Every day
the frame, the whip, and the hoop were brought in, and every day
almost the same performance took place. The lesson lasted three or
four hours, so that sometimes Fyodor Timofeyitch was so tired that
he staggered about like a drunken man, and Ivan Ivanitch opened his
beak and breathed heavily, while their master became red in the
face and could not mop the sweat from his brow fast enough.

The lesson and the dinner made the day very interesting, but the
evenings were tedious. As a rule, their master went off somewhere
in the evening and took the cat and the gander with him. Left alone,
Aunt