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DIAMONDS TO SIT ON

Hippolyte began to understand what it was all about. ' Drop that chair ! ’ Iznurenkov suddenly shouted. ‘ You bureaucrat, you, do you hear ? ’ Hippolyte meekly dropped the chair and mumbled : ‘ Excuse me, there must be some misunderstanding. I am only doing what I have been told to do.’ At this Iznurenkov cheered up and began to prance up and down the room, waving his arms about and singing. Presently he turned and said : ' So you won’t take the furniture to-day ? That’s good ! ’ Hippolyte moved towards the door. ‘ Wait a minute ! ’ said Iznurenkov, and thrust half a rouble into his hand. ‘ No, no. Please don’t refuse All honest work should be paid for.’ ‘ Much obliged,’ said Hippolyte, delighted with his own clever acting, and glad to escape from such an awkward position. It was only when he got out into the street again that he remembered Bender, and he began to tremble with fright.

Meanwhile Ernest Pavlovich Shchukin was wan­ dering about his friend’s flat, which had been kindly lent to him for the summer. He was trying to make up his mind whether he should or should not have a bath. The three-roomed flat was high up on the top landing of a nine-story house, and there was no other furniture in it except a looking-glass, a writing-table, and the Vorobianinov chair. The sun was shining on to the looking-glass. The engineer lay flat on the table as if it were a bed, but he immediately jumped up again. 111 go and have a bath,’ he decided, so he undressed and went into the bathroom. He stepped into the