Also the inspector of the Orphan Asylum, Gryslov, came occasionally, a silent man, with a black beard. He loved to sing, in his bass voice, the song: "Over the sea, the deep blue sea," and his wife, a stately, stout woman with big teeth, always ate up the whole provision of sweetmeats, a feat which occasioned remarks after her departure. "Felizata Segarovna does that on purpose. Whatever sweets come on the table, she always swallows the lot." Alexandra Fedorovna Travkina used to come with her husband. She was tall and thin, with a large nose and short red hair. She had big eyes and a piping voice, and blew her nose frequently with a sound like the tearing of calico. Her husband suffered from a disease of the throat, and spoke in consequence in a whisper. But he would talk incessantly by the hour, and the sounds that came from his mouth were like the rustling of dry straw. He was very well-to-do, had served in the Excise Department, and was a director of a flourishing benevolent society. Both he and his wife spoke of little else but charitable institutions. "Just think what has just happened in our society!" "Ah, yes, yes. Just imagine!" cried his wife. "An appeal has been presented for assistance." "I tell you, these charitable institutions ruin the people----" "A woman writes, her husband is dead. She has three children. They are starving and she is always ill." "The old story, you know----" "They were to get three roubles----" "But, for my part, I don't believe in this widow," cried Alexandra Fedorovna, triumphantly. "My wife says to me, 'Wait,' she says: 'I'll see first what kind of a person it is.'" "And what do you think? The husband had been dead five years." "She's two children, not three." "The things they say!" "And she's as healthy as can be." "Then I said to her: 'See now, my friend, how would you like to be tried for fraud?' Of course, she fell at my feet." "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Kirik Avtonomov. And every one praised Fedorovna for her acuteness, and blamed the poor, because of their lying and greed, and want of respect towards their benefactors. Lunev sat in his room, and listened attentively to the conversations that went on close by. He wanted to understand what these people thought and said of life. But what he heard was incomprehensible to him. It seemed as though these people had made up their minds about life, had settled all questions, and knew everything; and they condemned in the strongest terms every one who lived differently from themselves. Most frequently, they talked of all kinds of family scandals, of different services in the cathedral, or of the evil behaviour of their acquaintances. It wearied Ilya to listen. Sometimes his landlord invited him to tea in the evening. Tatiana Vlassyevna was merry, and her husband waxed enthusiastic over the possibility of becoming rich, when he would retire from the service and buy himself a house.