Under the influence of these agreeable reminiscences Shtchiptsov’s face brightened a little and his eyes began to shine.

“And do you remember how I beat Savoikin the manager?” he muttered, raising his head.  “But there!  I’ve beaten thirty-three managers in my time, and I can’t remember how many smaller fry.  And what managers they were!  Men who would not permit the very winds to touch them!  I’ve beaten two celebrated authors and one painter!”

“What are you crying for?”

“At Kherson I killed a horse with my fists.  And at Taganrog some roughs fell upon me at night, fifteen of them.  I took off their caps and they followed me, begging:  ‘Uncle, give us back our caps.’  That’s how I used to go on.”

“What are you crying for, then, you silly?”

“But now it’s all over . . .  I feel it.  If only I could go to Vyazma!”

A pause followed.  After a silence Shtchiptsov suddenly jumped up and seized his cap.  He looked distraught.

“Good-bye!  I am going to Vyazma!” he articulated, staggering.

“And the money for the journey?”

“H’m! . . .  I shall go on foot!”

“You are crazy. . . .”

The two men looked at each other, probably because the same thought —­of the boundless plains, the unending forests and swamps—­ struck both of them at once.

“Well, I see you have gone off your head,” the jeune premier commented.  “I’ll tell you what, old man. . . .  First thing, go to bed, then drink some brandy and tea to put you into a sweat.  And some castor-oil, of course.  Stay, where am I to get some brandy?”

Brama-Glinsky thought a minute, then made up his mind to go to a shopkeeper called Madame Tsitrinnikov to try and get it from her on tick:  who knows? perhaps the woman would feel for them and let them have it.  The jeune premier went off, and half an hour later returned with a bottle of brandy and some castor-oil.  Shtchiptsov was sitting motionless, as before, on the bed, gazing dumbly at the floor.  He drank the castor-oil offered him by his friend like an automaton, with no consciousness of what he was doing.  Like an automaton he sat afterwards at the table, and drank tea and brandy; mechanically he emptied the whole bottle and let the jeune premier put him to bed.  The latter covered him up with a quilt and an overcoat, advised him to get into a perspiration, and went away.

The night came on; Shtchiptsov had drunk a great deal of brandy, but he did not sleep.  He lay motionless under the quilt and stared at the dark ceiling; then, seeing the moon looking in at the window, he turned his eyes from the ceiling towards the companion of the earth, and lay so with open eyes till the morning.  At nine o’clock in the morning Zhukov, the manager, ran in.