I went into the small empty hall, and through the open door I saw Tchertop-hanov himself. In a greasy oriental dressing-gown, loose trousers, and a red skull-cap, he was sitting on a chair; in one hand he gripped the face of a young poodle, while in the other he was holding a piece of bread just above his nose. 'Ah!' he pronounced with dignity, not stirring from his seat: 'delighted to see you. Please sit down. I am busy here with Venzor.... Tihon Ivanitch,' he added, raising his voice, 'come here, will you? Here's a visitor.' 'I'm coming, I'm coming,' Tihon Ivanitch responded from the other room. 'Masha, give me my cravat.' Tchertop-hanov turned to Venzor again and laid the piece of bread on his nose. I looked round. Except an extending table much warped with thirteen legs of unequal length, and four rush chairs worn into hollows, there was no furniture of any kind in the room; the walls, which had been washed white, ages ago, with blue, star-shaped spots, were peeling off in many places; between the windows hung a broken tarnished looking-glass in a huge frame of red wood. In the corners stood pipestands and guns; from the ceiling hung fat black cobwebs. 'A, B, C, D,' Tchertop-hanov repeated slowly, and suddenly he cried furiously: '_E! E! E! E!_... What a stupid brute!...' But the luckless poodle only shivered, and could not make up his mind to open his mouth; he still sat wagging his tail uneasily and wrinkling up his face, blinked dejectedly, and frowned as though saying to himself: 'Of course, it's just as you please!' 'There, eat! come! take it!' repeated the indefatigable master. 'You've frightened him,' I remarked. 'Well, he can get along, then!' He gave him a kick. The poor dog got up softly, dropped the bread off his nose, and walked, as it were, on tiptoe to the hall, deeply wounded. And with good reason: a stranger calling for the first time, and to treat him like that! The door from the next room gave a subdued creak, and Mr. Nedopyuskin came in, affably bowing and smiling. I got up and bowed. 'Don't disturb yourself, don't disturb yourself,' he lisped. We sat down. Tchertop-hanov went into the next room. 'You have been for some time in our neighbourhood,' began Nedopyuskin in a subdued voice, coughing discreetly into his hand, and holding his fingers before his lips from a feeling of propriety. 'I came last month.' 'Indeed.' We were silent for a little. 'Lovely weather we are having just now,' resumed Nedopyuskin, and he looked gratefully at me as though I were in some way responsible for the weather: 'the corn, one may say, is doing wonderfully.' I nodded in token of assent. We were silent again. 'Panteley Eremyitch was pleased to hunt two hares yesterday,' Nedopyuskin began again with an effort, obviously wishing to enliven the conversation; 'yes, indeed, very big hares they were, sir.' 'Has Mr. Tchertop-hanov good hounds?'