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Zossimov was afraid a little time ago that he would go mad...

that's why he mustn't be irritated."

"What do you say?" cried the mother.

"Did the doctor really say that?" asked Avdotya Romanovna,

alarmed.

"Yes, but it's not so, not a bit of it. He gave him some

medicine, a powder, I saw it, and then your coming here.... Ah!

It would have been better if you had come to-morrow. It's a good

thing we went away. And in an hour Zossimov himself will report

to you about everything. He is not drunk! And I shan't be

drunk.... And what made me get so tight? Because they got me into

an argument, damn them! I've sworn never to argue! They talk such

trash! I almost came to blows! I've left my uncle to preside.

Would you believe, they insist on complete absence of

individualism and that's just what they relish! Not to be

themselves, to be as unlike themselves as they can. That's what

they regard as the highest point of progress. If only their

nonsense were their own, but as it is..."