A sentimental man, like Lavrov, has moments of pleasant emotion and makes the request: "Write a letter to my auntie in Briansk; she is a darling…."

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There is a bad smell in the barn: ten years ago haymakers slept the night in it and ever since it smells.

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An officer at a doctor's. The money on a plate. The doctor can see in the looking-glass that the patient takes twenty-five roubles from the plate and pays him with it.

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Russia is a nobody's country!

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Z. who is always saying banal things: "With the agility of a bear," "on one's favorite corn."

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