N. was a very good, fashionable tailor; but he was spoiled and ruined by trifles; at one time he made an overcoat without pockets, at another a collar which was much too high. * * * * * A farce: Agent of freight transport company and of fire insurance company. * * * * * Any one can write a play which might be produced. * * * * * A country house. Winter. N., ill, sits in his room. In the evening there suddenly arrives from the railway station a stranger Z., a young girl, who introduces herself and says that she has come to look after the invalid. He is perplexed, frightened, he refuses; then Z. says that at any rate she will stay the night. A day passes, two, and she goes on living there. She has an unbearable temper, she poisons one's existence. * * * * * A private room in a restaurant. A rich man Z., tying his napkin round his neck, touching the sturgeon with his fork: "At least I'll have a snack before I die"--and he has been saying this for a long time, daily. * * * * * By his remarks on Strindberg and literature generally L.L. Tolstoi reminds one very much of Madam Loukhmav.[1] [Footnote 1: L.L. Tolstoi was Leo Nicolaievitch'a son, Madame Loukhmav a tenth rate woman-writer.] * * * * * Diedlov, when he speaks of the Deputy Governor or the Governor, becomes a romanticist, remembering "The Arrival of the Deputy Governor" in the book _A Hundred Russian Writers_. * * * * * A play: the Bean of Life. * * * * * A vet. belongs to the stallion class of people. * * * * * Consultation. * * * * * The sun shines and in my soul is darkness. * * * * * In S. I made the acquaintance of the barrister Z.--a sort of Nika, The Fair ... He has several children; with all of them he is magisterial, gentle, kind, not a single rude word; I soon learn that he has another family. Then he invites me to his daughter's wedding; he prays, makes a genuflection, and says: "I still preserve religious feeling; I am a believer." And when in his presence people speak of education, of women, he has a naïve expression, exactly as if he did not understand. When he makes a speech in Court, his face looks as if he were praying. * * * * * "Mammy, don't show yourself to the guests, you are very fat." * * * * * Love? In love? Never! I am a Government clerk. * * * * * He knows little, even as a babe who has not yet come out of his mother's womb. * * * * * From childhood until extreme old age N. has had a passion for spying. * * * * *