Страница 658 из 1294

He bent right down to the ground and peeped up into her face from

below, he peeped and turned cold with horror: the old woman was

sitting and laughing, shaking with noiseless laughter, doing her

utmost that he should not hear it. Suddenly he fancied that the

door from the bedroom was opened a little and that there was

laughter and whispering within. He was overcome with frenzy and

he began hitting the old woman on the head with all his force,

but at every blow of the axe the laughter and whispering from the

bedroom grew louder and the old woman was simply shaking with

mirth. He was rushing away, but the passage was full of people,

the doors of the flats stood open and on the landing, on the

stairs and everywhere below there were people, rows of heads, all

looking, but huddled together in silence and expectation.

Something gripped his heart, his legs were rooted to the spot,

they would not move.... He tried to scream and woke up.