the writing in his hand. He looked at me intently and said: ‘Come

indoors, I can’t read without spectacles.’

«Well, I went with him into his hut—and a hut it certainly was: poor,

bare, crooked; only just holding together. On the wall there was an

ikon of old workmanship as black as a coal; only the whites of the

eyes gleamed in the faces. He took some round spectacles in iron

frames out of a little table, put them on his nose, read the writing

and looked at me again through the spectacles. ‘You have need of me?’

‘I certainly have,’ I answered. ‘Well,’ said he, ‘if you have, tell it

and we will listen.’ And, only fancy, he sat down and took a checked

handkerchief out of his pocket, and spread it out on his knee, and the

handkerchief was full of holes, and he looked at me with as much

dignity as though he were a senator or a minister, and he did not

ask me to sit down. And what was still stranger, I felt all at once

awe-stricken, so awe-stricken … my soul sank into my heels. He

pierced me through with his eyes and that’s the fact! I pulled myself

together, however, and told him all my story. He was silent for a

space, shrank into himself, chewed his lips and then questioned me

just like a senator again, majestically, without haste. ‘What is your

name?’ he asked. ‘Your age? What were your parents? Are you single or

married?’ Then again he munched his lips, frowned, held up his finger

and spoke: ‘Bow down to the holy ikon, to the honourable Saints

Zossima and Savvaty of Solovki.’ I bowed down to the earth and did not

get up in a hurry; I felt such awe for the man and such submission

that I believe that whatever he had told me to do I should have done

it on the spot! … I see you are grinning, gentlemen, but I was in no

laughing mood then, I assure you. ‘Get up, sir,’ said he at last. ‘I

can help you. This is not sent you as a chastisement, but as a

warning; it is for your protection; someone is praying for your

welfare. Go to the market now and buy a young dog and keep it by you

day and night. Your visions will leave you and, moreover, that dog

will be of use to you.’

«I felt as though light dawned upon me, all at once; how those words

delighted me. I bowed down to Prohoritch and would have gone away,

when I bethought me that I could not go away without rewarding him. I

got a three rouble note out of my pocket. But he thrust my hand away

and said, ‘Give it to our chapel, or to the poor; the service I have

done you is not to be paid for.’ I bowed down to him again almost to

the ground, and set off straight for the market! And only fancy: as

soon as I drew near the shops, lo and behold, a man in a frieze

overcoat comes sauntering towards me carrying under his arm a two

months’ old setter puppy with a reddish brown coat, white lips and

white forepaws. ‘Stay,’ I said to the man in the overcoat, ‘what will

you sell it for?’ ‘For two roubles.’ Take three!’ The man looked at me

in amazement, thought the gentleman had gone out of his wits, but I

flung the notes in his face, took the pup under my arm and made for my

carriage! The coachman quickly had the horses harnessed and that

evening I reached home. The puppy sat inside my coat all the way and

did not stir; and I kept calling him, ‘Little Trésor! Little Trésor!’

I gave him food and drink at once. I had some straw brought in,

settled him and whisked into bed! I blew out the candle: it was dark.

‘Well, now begin,’ said I. There was silence. ‘Begin,’ said I, ‘you so

and so!’… Not a sound, as though to mock me. Well, I began to feel

so set up that I fell to calling it all sorts of names. But still

there was not a sound! I could only hear the puppy panting! Filka,’ I

cried, ‘Filka! Come here, you stupid!’ He came in. ‘Do you hear the

dog?’ ‘No, sir,’ said he, ‘I hear nothing,’ and he laughed. ‘And you

won’t hear it ever again,’ said I. ‘Here’s half a rouble for vodka!’

‘Let me kiss your hand,’ said the foolish fellow, and he stooped down

to me in the darkness…. It was a great relief, I must tell you.»

«And was that how it all ended?» asked Anton Stepanitch, this time

without irony.

«The apparitions ended certainly and I was not disturbed in any way,

but wait a bit, the whole business was not over yet. My Trésor grew,

he turned into a fine fellow. He was heavy, with flopping ears and

overhanging lip and a thick tail; a regular sporting dog. And he was

extremely attached to me, too. The shooting in our district is poor,

however, as I had set up a dog, I got a gun, too. I took to sauntering

round the neighbourhood with my Trésor: sometimes one would hit a hare

(and didn’t he go after that hare, upon my soul), sometimes a quail,

or a duck. But the great thing was that Trésor was never a step away

from me. Where I went, he went; I even took him to the bath with me, I

did really! One lady actually tried to get me turned out of her

drawing-room on account of Trésor, but I made such an uproar! The

windows I broke! Well, one day … it was in summer … and I must

tell you there was a drought at the time such as nobody remembered.

The air was full of smoke or haze. There was a smell of burning, the

sun was like a molten bullet, and as for the dust there was no getting

it out of one’s nose and throat. People walked with their mouths wide

open like crows. I got weary of sitting at home in complete

deshabille, with shutters closed; and luckily the heat was beginning

to abate a little…. So I went off, gentlemen, to see a lady, a

neighbour of mine. She lived about three-quarters of a mile away—and

she certainly was a benevolent lady. She was still young and blooming

and of most prepossessing appearance; but she was of rather uncertain

temper. Though that is no harm in the fair sex; it even gives me

pleasure…. Well, I reached her door, and I did feel that I had had a

hot time of it getting there! Well, I thought, Nimfodora Semyonovna

will regale me now with bilberry water and other cooling drinks—and I

had already taken hold of the doorhandle when all at once there was

the tramping of feet and shrieking, and shouting of boys from round

the corner of a hut in the courtyard…. I looked round. Good heavens!

A huge reddish beast was rushing straight towards me; at the first

glance I did not recognise it as a dog: its jaws were open, its eyes

were bloodshot, its coat was bristling…. I had not time to take

breath before the monster bounded up the steps, stood upon its hind

legs and made straight for my chest—it was a position! I was numb

with terror and could not lift my arms. I was completely stupefied….

I could see nothing but the terrible white tusks just before my nose,

the red tongue all covered with white foam. But at the same instant,

another dark body was whisking before me like a ball—it was my

darling Trésor defending me; and he hung like a leech on the brute’s

throat! The creature wheezed, grated its teeth and staggered back. I

instantly flung open the door and got into the hall…. I stood hardly

knowing what I was doing with my whole weight on the door, and heard a

desperate battle going on outside. I began shouting and calling for

help; everyone in the house was terribly upset. Nimfodora Semyonovna

ran out with her hair down, the voices in the yard grew louder—and

all at once I heard: ‘Hold the gate, hold it, fasten it!’ I opened the

door—just a crack, and looked out: the monster was no longer on the

steps, the servants were rushing about the yard in confusion waving

their hands and picking up bits of wood from the ground; they were

quite crazy. ‘To the village, it has run off to the village,’ shrieked

a peasant woman in a cap of extraordinary size poking her head out of

a dormer window. I went out of the house.

«‘Where is my Trésor?’ I asked and at once I saw my saviour. He was

coming from the gate limping, covered with wounds and with blood….

‘What’s the meaning of it?’ I asked the servants who were dashing

about the yard as though possessed. ‘A mad dog!’ they answered, ‘the

count’s; it’s been hanging about here since yesterday.’

«We had a neighbour, a count, who bred very fierce foreign dogs. My

knees shook; I rushed to a looking-glass and looked to see whether I

had been bitten. No, thank God, there was nothing to be seen; only my

countenance naturally looked green; while Nimfodora Semyonovna was

lying on the sofa and cackling like a hen. Well, that one could quite

understand, in the first place nerves, in the second sensibility. She

came to herself at last, though, and asked me whether I were alive. I

answered that I was and that Trésor had saved me. ‘Ah,’ she said,

‘what a noble creature! and so the mad dog has strangled him?’ ‘No,’ I

said, ‘it has not strangled him, but has wounded him seriously.’ ‘Oh,’

she said, ‘in that case he must be shot this minute!’ ‘Oh, no,’ I

said, ‘I won’t agree to that. I shall try to cure him….’ At that

moment Trésor began scratching at the door. I was about to go and open

it for him. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘what are you doing, why, it will bite us

all.’ ‘Upon my word,’ I said, ‘the