Mikhail Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita -
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is going to keep you if it isn't necessary.' Ivan gave him a suspicious
scowl, but muttered :
'Thank God for that! At last I've found one normal person among all
these idiots and the worst idiot of the lot is that incompetent fraud Sasha!
'
'Who is this incompetent Sasha? ' enquired the doctor. ' That's him,
Ryukhin,' replied Ivan, jabbing a dirty finger in
Ryukhin's direction, who spluttered in protest. ' That's all the thanks
I get,' he thought bitterly, ' for showing him some sympathy! What a
miserable swine he is! '
* A typical kulak mentality,' said Ivan Nikolayich, who obviously felt
a sudden urge to attack Ryukhin. ' And what's more he's a kulak masquerading
as a proletarian. Look at his mean face and compare it with all that pompous
verse he writes for May Day ... all that stuff about "onwards and upwards"
and "banners waving "! If you could look inside him and see what he's
thinking you'd be sickened! ' And Ivan Nikolayich gave a hoot of malicious
laughter.
Ryukhin, breathing heavily, turned red. There was only one thought in
his mind--that he had nourished a serpent in his bosom, that he had tried to
help someone who when it came to the pinch had treacherously rounded on him.
The worst of it was that he could not answer back--one mustn't swear at a
lunatic!
'Exactly why have they brought you here? ' asked the doctor, who had
listened to Bezdomny's outburst with great attention.
'God knows, the blockheads! They grabbed me, tied me up with some
filthy rags and dumped me in a lorry!'
'May I ask why you came into the restaurant in nothing but your
underwear?'
'There's nothing odd about it,' answered Ivan. ' I went for a swim in
the Moscow River and someone pinched my clothes and left me this junk
instead! I couldn't walk round Moscow naked, could I? I had to put on what