"he began to talk at once excitedly and with trembling lips; he began complaining and telling me his story. he interested me, i confess; i sat there nearly an hour. his story was a very ordinary one. he had been a provincial doctor; he had a civil appointment, and had no sooner taken it up than intrigues began. even his wife was dragged into these. he was proud, and flew into a passion; there was a change of local government which acted in favour of his opponents; his position was undermined, complaints were made against him; he lost his post and came up to petersburg with his last remaining money, in order to appeal to higher authorities. of course nobody would listen to him for a long time; he would come and tell his story one day and be refused promptly; another day he would be fed on false promises; again he would be treated harshly; then he would be told to sign some documents; then he would sign the paper and hand it in, and they would refuse to receive it, and tell him to file a formal petition. in a word he had been driven about from office to office for five months and had spent every farthing he had; his wife’s last rags had just been pawned; and meanwhile a child had been born to them and and today i have a final refusal to my petition, and i have hardly a crumb of bread left i have nothing left; my wife has had a baby lately and i i ’