"It only seemed to you, Ardalyon Borisitch."
"Surely everything doesn't merely seem to me," muttered Peredonov sadly. "There must be also truth upon the earth."
Even Peredonov, in common with all conscious life, strove towards the truth, and this striving tortured him. He was not conscious that he, like all people, was striving towards the truth, and that was why he suffered this confused restlessness. He could not find the truth he sought, and he was caught in the toils and was perishing.
His acquaintances began to taunt him with being a dupe. With the usual cruelty of our town towards the weak, they talked of this deception in his presence. Prepolovenskaya asked with a derisive smile:
"How is it, Ardalyon Borisitch, that you haven't gone away to your inspector's job yet?"
Varvara answered for him with suppressed anger:
"We shall get the paper soon, and we shall leave at once."
But these questions depressed him.
"How can I live, if the place isn't given to me?" he thought.