Chapter 66: Not Wanted

Not Wanted Between six and seven o’clock on a July evening, a crowd of summer visitors—mostly fathers of families—burdened with parcels, portfolios, and ladies’ hatboxes, was trailing along from the little station of Helkovo, in the direction of the summer villas. They all looked exhausted, hungry, and ill-humoured, as though the sun were not shining and the grass were not green for them. Trudging along among the others was Pavel Matveyitch Zaikin, a member of the Circuit Court, a tall, …