Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) THE HOUSE WITH THE MEZZANINE AND OTHER STORIES BY ANTON TCHEKOFF TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY S. S. KOTELIANSKY AND GILBERT CANNAN NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1917 COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published August, 1917 CONTENTS THE HOUSE WITH THE MEZZANINE TYPHUS GOOSEBERRIES IN EXILE THE LADY WITH THE TOY DOG GOUSSIEV MY LIFE THE HOUSE WITH THE MEZZANINE (A PAINTER'S STORY) It happened nigh on seven years ago, when I was living in one of the districts of the J. province, on the estate of Bielokurov, a landowner, a young man who used to get up early, dress himself in a long overcoat, drink beer in the evenings, and all the while complain to me that he could nowhere find any one in sympathy with his ideas. He lived in a little house in the orchard, and I lived in the old manor-house, in a huge pillared hall where there was no furniture except a large divan, on which I slept, and a table at which I used to play patience. Even in calm weather there was always a moaning in the chimney, and in a storm the whole house would rock and seem as though it must split, and it was quite terrifying, especially at night, when all the ten great windows were suddenly lit up by a flash of lightning. Doomed by fate to permanent idleness, I did positively nothing. For hours together I would sit and look through the windows at the sky, the birds, the trees and read my letters over and over again, and then for hours together I would sleep. Sometimes I would go out and wander aimlessly until evening.