e Serge Petrovich, although not as
often, he is tormented by restless thoughts, and, from time to time,
he is obliged to defend his "fortress." But usually he is contented
with watching life, that is to say, that part which he can see from
his window. Nothing troubles the tranquillity of his mind, not even
the desire to live like other men. One day, he speaks of his
theories to a simple, uneducated young girl whom he thinks of
marrying. She is astonished and stupefied by them. She perceives
that he leads an insipid and morose life. Andrey Nikolayevich does
not take into account or understand the stupefaction of the young
girl.

"This then is your life?" she asks, incredulously.

"This is it. What more could you want?"

"But it must be terribly monotonous to live in that way, apart from
the world."

"What good does one find in mankind? Nothing but tedium. When I am
alone, I am my own master, but among men you never know what
attitude to take to please them. They drag you into drunkenness,
into gambling; then they denounce you to your superiors. I, however,
love calmness and frankness. Some of them accept bribes and allow
themselves to become corrupt; I do not like that.... I adore
tranquillity."

Moreover, he does not marry the young girl. He gives her up because
he is afraid of the incumbrances that housekeeping will bring.

In "The Grand Slam" four provincial "intellectuals" are locked up in
the same fortress, and, by playing cards, they escape the terrible
problems of a life which is inimical to them. Their existence has
been passed among these cards, which, by a mysterious phenomenon,
have become real living creatures to them. One of the players has
dreamed all through his life of getting a grand slam, when, one
evening, he sees he has the necessary cards in his hand. He has but
to take one more card, the ace of spades, and his dream will be
realized. But at the very moment when he is stretching forth his
hand to take it, he falls down dead. His partners are terrified. One
of them, a timorous and exact old man, named Jacob Ivanovich, is
particularly struck. A thought comes to him; he quickly rises, after
making sure that it was the ace of spades that the dead man was
going to take, and cries:

"But he will never know that he was going to get the ace of spades
and a grand slam! Never.... Never...."

"Then it appeared to Jacob Ivanovich that, up to this moment, he had
never understood what death was. Now he