“Detestable people these Finns and . . .  Greeks,” he thought.  “Absolutely superfluous, useless, detestable people.  They simply fill up space on the earthly globe.  What are they for?”

And the thought of Finns and Greeks produced a feeling akin to sickness all over his body.  For the sake of comparison he tried to think of the French, of the Italians, but his efforts to think of these people evoked in his mind, for some reason, nothing but images of organ-grinders, naked women, and the foreign oleographs which hung over the chest of drawers at home, at his aunt’s.

Altogether the officer felt in an abnormal state.  He could not arrange his arms and legs comfortably on the seat, though he had the whole seat to himself.  His mouth felt dry and sticky; there was a heavy fog in his brain; his thoughts seemed to be straying, not only within his head, but outside his skull, among the seats and the people that were shrouded in the darkness of night.  Through the mist in his brain, as through a dream, he heard the murmur of voices, the rumble of wheels, the slamming of doors.  The sounds of the bells, the whistles, the guards, the running to and fro of passengers on the platforms, seemed more frequent than usual.  The time flew by rapidly, imperceptibly, and so it seemed as though the train were stopping at stations every minute, and metallic voices crying continually: 

“Is the mail ready?”

“Yes!” was repeatedly coming from outside.

It seemed as though the man in charge of the heating came in too often to look at the thermometer, that the noise of trains going in the opposite direction and the rumble of the wheels over the bridges was incessant.  The noise, the whistles, the Finn, the tobacco smoke—­all this mingling with the menace and flickering of the misty images in his brain, the shape and character of which a man in health can never recall, weighed upon Klimov like an unbearable nightmare.  In horrible misery he lifted his heavy head, looked at the lamp in the rays of which shadows and misty blurs seemed to be dancing.  He wanted to ask for water, but his parched tongue would hardly move, and he scarcely had strength to answer the Finn’s questions.  He tried to lie down more comfortably and go to sleep, but he could not succeed.  The Finn several times fell asleep, woke up again, lighted his pipe, addressed him with his “Ha!” and went to sleep again; and still the lieutenant’s legs could not get into a comfortable position, and still the menacing images stood facing him.

At Spirovo he went out into the station for a drink of water.  He saw people sitting at the table and hurriedly eating.

“And how can they eat!” he thought, trying not to sniff the air, that smelt of roast meat, and not to look at the munching mouths —­they both seemed to him sickeningly disgusting.

A good-looking lady was conversing loudly with a military man in a red cap, and showing magnificent white teeth as she smiled; and the smile, and the teeth, and the lady herself made on Klimov the same revolting impression as the ham and the rissoles.  He could not understand how it was the military man in the red cap was not ill at ease, sitting beside her and looking at her healthy, smiling face.