Stories 14 through 16 Summary

Story 14: In Exile

A young Tartar has been wrongly convicted of stealing horses and beating a man. He has been sentenced to hard labor in Siberia. He tells Semyon, nicknamed the Explainer, about the beautiful and intelligent wife he left behind and that she and his mother will come to live in Siberia. The Explainer tells him a long story about another man who was banished to Siberia. His wife and daughter came and lived in Siberia just three years. The wife became bored and began an affair with an officer and finally left for Russia. Some years later, the daughter is grown and still in Siberia. She became very ill, contracting consumption. The man spends all his money on trying to cure the daughter. The man wants to fetch another doctor he heard of, but the Explainer tells him he...