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"What were his circumstances?"

"It appears his wife has precious little. There's some trifle, I believe."

"One ought to call. They live a frightful distance off."

"Far away from you, no doubt, very far."

"Well, you cannot expect me to live in the suburbs," said Peter Ivanovich, smiling at Shebek. And they began talking of how great the distances were in the city, and then resumed the session.

Independently of the potential permutations and transfers likely to result in official circles from this death, the mere fact of the death itself of a close acquaintance excited, as usual, in all who heard it, a feeling of satisfaction that the hearers survived.

"Ah! he has died, and here am I alive," was what everyone thought or felt. Moreover, the close acquaintances, including the so-called friends of Ivan Il'ich, on this occasion involuntarily reflected that now they would have to fulfil the very tiresome obligations of propriety, and attend the Panikhida besides waiting upon the widow with their condolences.

The nearest neighbours were Theodor Vasilevich and Peter Ivanovich.

Peter Ivanovich was a member of the College of Jurisprudence, and considered himself under obligations to Ivan Il'ich.

After communicating to his wife at dinner the news of the death of Ivan Il'ich, and of the idea and the possibility of transferring his own brother-in-law into