to, then there is neither my house, nor my blessing for you!
Good-bye, Ivanitch!"

Zotov drank another glass, and, inspired by the new idea, hurried
home. The vodka had upset him and his head was reeling, but instead
of lying down, he put all his clothes together in a bundle, said a
prayer, took his stick, and went out. Muttering and tapping on the
stones with his stick, he walked the whole length of the street
without looking back, and found himself in the open country. It was
eight or nine miles to the farm. He walked along the dry road,
looked at the town herd lazily munching the yellow grass, and
pondered on the abrupt change in his life which he had only just
brought about so resolutely. He thought, too, about his dependents.
When he went out of the house, he had not locked the gate, and so
had left them free to go whither they would.

He had not gone a mile into the country when he heard steps behind
him. He looked round and angrily clasped his hands. The horse and
Lyska, with their heads drooping and their tails between their legs,
were quietly walking after him.

"Go back!" he waved to them.

They stopped, looked at one another, looked at him. He went on,
they followed him. Then he stopped and began ruminating. It was
impossible to go to his great-niece Glasha, whom he hardly knew,
with these creatures; he did not want to go back and shut them up,
and, indeed, he could not shut them up, because the gate was no
use.

"To die of hunger in the shed," thought Zotov. "Hadn't I really
better take them to Ignat?"

Ignat's hut stood on the town pasture-ground, a hundred paces from
the flagstaff. Though he had not quite made up his mind, and did
not know what to do, he turned towards it. His head was giddy and
there was a darkness before his eyes. . . .

He remembers little of what happened in the slaughterer's yard. He
has a memory of a sickening, heavy smell of hides and the savoury
steam of the cabbage-soup Ignat was sipping when he went in to him.
As in a dream he saw Ignat, who made him wait two hours, slowly
preparing something, changing his clothes, talking to some women
about corrosive sublimate; he remembered the horse was put into a
stand, after which there was the sound of two dull thuds, one of a
blow on the skull, the other of the fall of a heavy body. When
Lyska, seeing the death of her friend, flew at Ignat, barking
shrilly, there was the sound of a third blow that cut short the
bark abruptly. F