The Man from the Restaurant

5 hrs. 43 min.

Classics

Language Russian

Author Ivan Shmelyov

Narrator Yury Gurzhiy

Description

“…I’m actually a calm, restrained person, though—at thirty-eight, you could say I’ve managed to simmer quite a bit. But these words were like boiling water thrown on me. Alone, I could probably put up with such a thing… He, apparently, wanted dog-shaped kulebyaka! And on top of that, in front of Kolya… and such expressions!.. Don’t you dare rummage through other people’s apartments! I trusted you, that’s why I didn’t lock the room—yet you’ve been searching everything with strangers!.. You’re used to brushing up other people’s pockets in restaurants—so you think you’re allowed to do it at my hearth too? And it went on and on…

And the worst part is: he wasn’t drunk. He just—well, he had “clean gold” with him. In fact, he was taking revenge on us for asking him to move out and free the room. He paid us back with all sorts of things. He worked as a clerk at the station, but he was horribly arrogant and suspicious. I explained to him politely, with respect, that we couldn’t possibly live in the same apartment with such proud morals and his endless drunken binges—and even put up a notice at the gate. He was offended that I showed his room—so he pounced…»