" "What's this? Am I going out of my mind?" he said to himself.

"Perhaps.

What makes men go out of their minds; what makes men shoot themselves?" he answered himself, and opening his eyes, he saw with wonder an embroidered cushion beside him, worked by Varya, his brother's wife.

He touched the tassel of the cushion, and tried to think of Varya, of when he had seen her last.