Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/58

 Rh "Hello!" he said.

"Well, what is it? What is the matter?" the shoemaker asked.

"My mistress has sent me to you," he continued, "to see about the boots which my master has just ordered."

"Well, what about the boots?" Simeon asked.

"I have been sent to tell you that the boots are no longer required," the servant answered; "my master is dead."

"What!" ejaculated the now thoroughly astonished shoemaker.

"My master, after leaving here," he went on, "never reached his home alive. He died in the carriage while I was driving him there. We had the greatest difficulty in getting him out of the vehicle, for he was already stiff when we arrived at the house. My mistress now sends me to you to say that from the leather left here you are to make slippers, and not boots. They are to be worn by the dead man,