"Checkov, Anton - The Wife And Other Stories" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chekhov Anton)

Ivan Ivanitch sneezed into his handkerchief, brightened up, and
as though he had just woken up, looked round at my wife and me.

"My crops have failed, too." He laughed a thin little laugh and
gave a sly wink as though this were really funny. "No money, no
corn, and a yard full of labourers like Count Sheremetyev's. I
want to kick them out, but I haven't the heart to."

Natalya Gavrilovna laughed, and began questioning him about his
private affairs. Her presence gave me a pleasure such as I had
not felt for a long time, and I was afraid to look at her for
fear my eyes would betray my secret feeling. Our relations were
such that that feeling might seem surprising and ridiculous.

She laughed and talked with Ivan Ivanitch without being in the
least disturbed that she was in my room and that I was not
laughing.

"And so, my friends, what are we to do?" I asked after waiting
for a pause. "I suppose before we do anything else we had better
immediately open a subscription-list. We will write to our
friends in the capitals and in Odessa, Natalie, and ask them to
subscribe. When we have got together a little sum we will begin
buying corn and fodder for the cattle; and you, Ivan Ivanitch,
will you be so kind as to undertake distributing the relief?
Entirely relying on your characteristic tact and efficiency, we
will only venture to express a desire that before you give any
relief you make acquaintance with the details of the case on the
spot, and also, which is very important, you should be careful
that corn should be distributed only to those who are in genuine
need, and not to the drunken, the idle, or the dishonest."

"Yes, yes, yes . . ." muttered Ivan Ivanitch. "To be sure, to be
sure."

"Well, one won't get much done with that slobbering wreck," I
thought, and I felt irritated.

"I am sick of these famine-stricken peasants, bother them! It's
nothing but grievances with them!" Ivan Ivanitch went on, sucking
the rind of the lemon. "The hungry have a grievance against those
who have enough, and those who have enough have a grievance
against the hungry. Yes . . . hunger stupefies and maddens a man
and makes him savage; hunger is not a potato. When a man is
starving he uses bad language, and steals, and may do worse. . .
. One must realize that."

Ivan Ivanitch choked over his tea, coughed, and shook all over
with a squeaky, smothered laughter.