One fine evening, the equally fine executor, Ivan Dmitrievitch Chervyakov, sat in the second row of armchairs and looked through binoculars at the “Corneville Bells.” He looked and felt at the top of bliss. But suddenly. In stories, this is often “but suddenly.” The authors are right: life is so full of surprises! But suddenly his face winced, his eyes rolled, his breath stopped. He took the binoculars from his eyes, bent and. achkhi. He croaked, as you can see. Sneeze to anyone and is not forbidden anywhere. Sneeze and men, and police masters, and sometimes even secret advisers. Everyone sneezes. Chervyakov was not at all embarrassed, wiped his handkerchief and, like a polite man, looked around him: had he bothered anyone with his sneeze? But here it was necessary to be embarrassed. He saw that the old man, who was sitting in front of him, in the first row of armchairs, diligently wiped his bald head and neck with a glove and muttered something. In the old man
Chervyakov learned of the State General Brizzalov, an employee of the Ministry of Railways. “I sprinkled it,” thought Chervyakov, “not my boss, a stranger, but still awkward.” I must apologize. ” Chervyakov coughed, moved his body forward and whispered to the general in the ear: “I’m sorry, yours, I splattered you.” I accidentally. – Nothing, nothing. “For God’s sake, sorry.” I’m in fact. I did not want to! – Oh, sit, please! Let me listen! Chervyakov was embarrassed, smiled foolishly and began to look at the scene. He looked, but he did not feel bliss anymore. It began to torment anxiety. At the intermission, he approached Brizgalov, walked beside him, and, exaggerating shyness, muttered: “I spattered you, yours.” Sorry. I’m in fact. Not really. – Oh, fullness. I forgot, but you are all about the same! said the general, and moved his lower lip impatiently. “I forgot, but I still have malice in my eyes,” thought Chervyakov, looking suspiciously at the general, “and I do not want to say, I should
explain to him that I did not want it at all, that this is a law of nature, or it will think that I wanted to spit.” Now he does not think about it, so he’ll think about it. “Upon coming home, Chervyakov told his wife about his ignorance. His wife, it seemed to him, too lightly reacted to what had happened; she was only frightened, and then, when she found out that Brizzhalov was “a stranger”, she calmed down. “But still you go, apologize,” she said. – Thinks you can not keep yourself in the public! – That’s it! I apologized, but he is somehow strange. He did not say a word well. And there was no time to talk. The next day Chervyakov put on a new uniform, he took a haircut and went to see Brizgalov. Entering the reception room of the general, he saw a lot of petitioners there, and between the petitioners and the general himself, who had already started accepting petitions. After asking a few petitioners, the general raised his eyes and Chervyakov. “Yesterday in Arcadia, if you remember, yours,” the executor began to report, “I sneezed-and.” accidentally sprinkled. Izv. “What trifles.” God knows what! Anything for you? – Turned the general to the next applicant. “He does not want to talk,” thought Tchervyakov, turning pale. “It’s angry, it means… No, you can not leave it that way, I’ll explain it to him.” When the general finished talking with the last applicant and headed to the inner apartments, Chervyakov took a step behind him and muttered: – tion! If I dare to disturb your feelings, then it is from feelings, I can say, of remorse. Not on purpose, you yourself know-with! The general made a whiny face and waved his hand. “You’re just laughing, honey!” he said, hiding behind the door. “What kind of ridicule,” thought Chervyakov, “there’s no mockery at all, General, but he can not understand, when I’m so, I’m not going to apologize to this fanfaron any more! Damn him! I’ll write him a letter, but I will not go! I swear, I will not! ” Chervyakov thought so, going home. He did not write letters to the general. I thought, thought, and did not invent this letter in any way. I had to go myself to explain the next day. “Yesterday I came to disturb you,” he muttered, when the general raised his inquiring eyes to him, “not in order to laugh, as you were pleased to say. I apologized for sneezing-with a sneeze. but I did not think to laugh. Do I dare to laugh? If we laugh, so then no, then, and respect for people. will not be. – Go away. the suddenly blue and shaking general barked suddenly. “What?” Chervyakov asked in a whisper, mirning with horror. – Go away. repeated the general, stomping his feet. In Chervyakov’s stomach, something broke away. Seeing nothing, not hearing anything, he backed to the door, went out into the street and trailed off. Arriving mechanically home, without removing the uniform, he lay down on the sofa and. died.
