"Your nose is blocked up," said Peredonov. "No wonder it's gone red. It's rotting there behind the wall-paper."
"A beetle!" exclaimed Varvara with a boisterous laugh. Peredonov looked dull and grave.
Peredonov became more and more engulfed in his madness, and began to write denunciations against the court cards, the nedotikomka, the Ram—that he, the Ram, was an imposter who, representing Volodin, was aiming for a high position, but was in reality only a Ram; against the forest destroyers who cut down the birches, so that there were no twigs for Turkish baths, and that it was impossible to bring up children, because they left only the aspens, and what use were they?
When he met the schoolboys in the street, Peredonov frightened the youngest and amused the older ones with his shameless and ridiculous words. The older ones walked after him in a crowd, scattering, however, when they saw one of the other masters; the younger ones ran away from him of their own accord.
Peredonov saw enchantments and sorceries in everything. His hallucinations terrified him and forced from him senseless moans and squeals. The nedotikomka appeared to him now blood-like, now flaming; it groaned and it bellowed, and its bellowing split his head with an unendurable pain. The cat grew to terrible dimensions, stamped with high boots and turned into a huge red bewhiskered person.
[1] A double meaning is implied in Peredonov's use of the word, as the word "patchkatsya" means to soil oneself.
[2] A musical instrument.