Read "Isn't it Terrible?" by Vladimir Korolenko online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The narrator stopped. The train, which was approaching another station, began to slow down. Petr Petrovich reached out his hand and said, as he took his blue cap with a cockade from the hook:
"I'm going again to get something to eat. I confess, my dear Pavel Semenovich, I don't see what you're driving at. Excuse me, it's not philosophy, and God only knows what you are after. We began with Budnikov. All right, we know him. Now the devil knows who this Rogov is, a worn-out rogue, and now I don't know whether you're talking of Xenophon or Alcibiades. Cutting off dogs' tails. The devil knows what you mean. Kindly allow me to ask how all this concerns me. Just as you wish. I'd better go and get some more vodka."