Read "The Double" by Fyodor Dostoevsky online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
MR GOLYADKIN awoke next morning as usual at eight o'clock, and as soon as he was awake he remembered everything that had happened on the previous evening, remembered it with a frown. ‘Oh dear, what a fool I made of myself yesterday!' he thought, raising himself on his pillows and glancing at his visitor's bed. But to his great surprise the room was empty not only of his guest but of the bed on which he had slept as well! What's this?' Mr Golyadkin almost shrieked. ‘What on earth can have happened? What can this new turn of things mean?' While he was gaping in bewilderment at the empty space, the door creaked open and Petrushka came in with the tea-tray. ‘But where, where?' said our hero in a barely audible voice, pointing to the place vacated by yesterday's guest. At first Petrushka did not answer, but squinted his eyes towards the corner on the right, so that Mr Golyadkin felt constrained to look towards the same corner himself. After a short silence, however, Petrushka answered, in his surly husky tones, that the master wasn't at home.
‘You're a fool, Petrushka; I'm your master, aren't I?' said Mr Golyadkin in a broken voice, staring hard at his servant.