“Small demon” of Sologub in short summary
Ardalon Borisovich Peredonov, a teacher of literature in the local gymnasium, constantly felt himself the subject of special attention of women. Still would! State counselor, a man in juice, in fact, not married… After all, Barbara that… Barbarian in the case of which you can and poboku. Here is one thing – without it, perhaps, you will not get an inspector’s place. Princess Volchanskaya promised Varvara to clutch for Ardalyon Borisovich, but the condition was put by the wedding: it is inconvenient to work for a roommate of her former home dressmaker. However, first the place, and then the wedding. And then just deceived.
Varvara was extremely worried about these moods, and she begged the widow Grushina for money to make a letter, as if from the princess, with the promise of a place if they were married.
Peredonov was delighted, but Vershina, who was trying to extradite him to Martha, immediately besieged: where is the envelope? Business letter –
The meeting led to the idea of visiting the fathers of the city and assuring them of their reliability. He visited the mayor’s head, the prosecutor, the leader of the nobility, the chairman of the district zemstvo council and even the police chief. And everyone said that everything that he was talking about was nonsense. If he wanted to smoke in the street, he suddenly saw the policeman and asked if it was possible to smoke here. To almost completed the inspector did not replace Volodin, he decided to mark himself. On the chest, on his stomach, on his elbows, he put the letter P in ink.
The cat became suspicious too. Strong electricity in the wool – that’s the trouble. And he led the beast to the hairdresser – shear.
Many times there was to him a gray underdog, riding at his feet, mocking him, teasing him: he would pop out and hide himself. And even worse – the card. The ladies, two together, winked; aces, kings, jacks whispered, whispered, teased.
After the wedding Peredonovs first visited the director with his wife, but it was noticeable that they were rotating in different circles of the local society. And in the gymnasium, Peredonov does not have everything smooth. He visited the parents of his students and complained about their laziness and insolence. In several cases of the children there were secretaries for these fictitious faults and complained to the director.
Quite wild was a story with a fifth grader Sasha Pylnikov. Grushina said that this boy is actually a disguised girl: so cute and all blushes, quiet and schoolboys tease him with a girl. And all this in order to catch Ardalyon Borisovich.
Peredonov reported to the director about a possible scandal: at the gymnasium debauchery would begin. The director felt that Peredonov was going too far. Still cautious Nikolai Vlasyevich in the presence of the gymnasium doctor was convinced that Sasha was not a girl, but the rumor did not abate, and one of the Rutilov sisters, Lyudmila, looked into the house of Kokovkina, where her aunt had rented a room for Sasha.
Lyudmila and Sasha made friends with a tender but restless friendship. Lyudmila awakened premature, still obscure aspirations. She came dressed elegantly, perfumed, sprinkled perfume on her Daphnis.
Innocent excitements made for Lyudmila the main charm of their meetings, she said to the Sisters: “I do not love him as much as you think… I love him innocently. I do not need anything from him.” She slowed Sasha, put on her knees, kissed and allowed to kiss her wrists, shoulders, legs. Once half-questioned, half-forced him to bare to the waist. And he said: “I love beauty… I would be born in ancient Athens… I love the body, strong, dexterous, naked… My dear idol, the God of God…”
She began dressing him in her outfits, and sometimes in the tunic of an Athenian or fisherman. Her tender kisses aroused the desire to make her something cute or sick, tender or shameful, so she laughed with joy or screamed in pain.
Meanwhile, Peredonov already told everyone about Pylnikov’s depravity. The townspeople looked at the boy and Lyudmila with perverse curiosity. The future inspector himself behaved more and more strangely. He burned winks and crooked in his face cards, wrote denunciations of card figures, a nedotykomku, a ram, pretending to be Volodin. But the most terrible was what happened on the masquerade. Eternal jokers and inventors Sister Rutilov dressed Sasha Geisha and did it so skillfully that the first women’s prize went to him. The crowd of guests envious of envy and alcohol demanded to remove the mask, and in response to the refusal tried to grab the geisha, but the actor Bengalsky, who had taken her out of the crowd, was rescued. While they were persecuting the geisha, Peredonov decided to put out a fire on the nevesti from where it had come from. He brought the match to the curtain. The fire was noticed already from the street, so that the house burnt down, but people were saved. Subsequent events assured everyone that the talk about Sasha and the girls of the Rutilovs was nonsense.
Peredonov began to understand that he had been deceived. One evening Volodin came in and sat down at the table. They drank more than they ate. The guest bleated, fooled: “Fooled you, Ardasha.” Peredonov snatched out his knife and cut Volodin’s throat.
When they came in to take the killer, he sat sullen and muttered something meaningless.
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