, so that Efim Akimovitch (he's the greatest
tease in the world) remarked in such a way that all could hear him,
"Why do you sit so like a y-y-y, Makar Alexievitch?" Then he made such
a grimace that everybody round him and me split with laughter, and of
course at my expense. They kept it up interminably! I drooped my ears
and screwed up my eyes, and sat there motionless. That's my way; they
stop the quicker. All at once I heard a noise, a running and a tumult;
I heard--did my ears deceive me? They were calling for me, demanding
me, summoning Dyevushkin. My heart quivered in my breast, and I didn't
know myself what I feared, for nothing of the sort had ever happened
to me in the whole course of my life. I was rooted to my chair,--as
though nothing had occurred, as though it were not I. But then they
began again, nearer at hand, and nearer still. And here they were,
right in my very ear: "Dyevushkin! Dyevushkin!" they called; "where's
Dyevushkin?" I raise my eyes, and there before me stands Evstafiy
Ivanovitch; he says:--"Makar Alexievitch, hasten to his Excellency as
quickly as possible! You've made a nice mess with that document!"

That was all he said, but it was enough, wasn't it, my dear,--quite
enough to say? I turned livid, and grew as cold as ice, and lost my
senses; I started, and I simply didn't know whether I was alive or
dead as I went. They led me through one room, and through another
room, and through a third room, to the private office, and I presented
myself! Positively, I cannot give you any account of what I was
thinking about. I saw his Excellency standing there, with all of them
around him. It appears that I did not make my salute; I forgot it
completely. I was so scared that my lips trembled and my legs shook.
And there was sufficient cause, my dear. In the first place, I was
ashamed of myself; I glanced to the right, at a mirror, and what I
beheld therein was enough to drive any man out of his senses. And in
the second place, I have always behaved as though there were no place
for me in the world. So that it is not likely that his Excellency was
even aware of my existence. It is possible that he may have heard it
cursorily mentioned that there was a person named Dyevushkin in the
department, but he had never come into any closer relations.

He began angrily, "What's the meaning of this, sir? What are you
staring at? Here's an important paper, needed in haste, and you go
and spoil it. And how did you