Next morning his head ached, his cars hummed, and he was weak. The
memory of his weakness of the day before made him feel ashamed.
Yesterday he had shown a petty spirit, he had feared even the moon, and
honestly expressed feelings and thoughts which he had never suspected
could exist in himself. For instance, the thought about the discontent
of philosophic triflers. But now he was quite indifferent.
He neither ate nor drank, but lay motionless and silent.
"It is all the same to me," he thought when he was questioned. "I shall
not answer.... It is all the same...."
After dinner Mikhail Averyanitch brought him a quarter of a pound of
tea and a pound of marmalade. Dáryushka also came, and for a whole
hour stood beside the bed with a dull expression of uncomprehending
affliction. Doctor Khobótoff also paid him a visit. He brought a phial
of bromide of potassium, and ordered Nikita to fumigate the ward.
Towards evening Andréi Yéfimitch died from an apoplectic stroke. At
first he felt chill, and sickness; something loathsome like rotting
sour cabbage or bad eggs seemed to permeate his whole body even to his
fingers, to extend from his stomach to his head, and to flow in his
eyes and ears. A green film appeared before his eyes. Andréi Yéfimitch
realised that his hour had come; and remembered that Iván Dmítritch,
Mikhail Averyanitch, and millions of others believed in immortality.
But immortality he did not desire, and thought of it only for a moment.
A herd of antelopes, extraordinarily beautiful and graceful, of which
he had been reading the day before, rushed past him; then a woman
stretched out to him a hand holding a registered letter.... Mikhail
Averyanitch said something. Then all vanished and Andréi Yéfimitch died.
The servants came in, took him by the shoulders and legs, and carried
him to the chapel. There he lay on a table with open eyes, and at night
the moon shone down upon him. In the morning came Sergéi Sergéyitch,
piously prayed before a crucifix, and closed the eyes of his former
chief. Next day Andréi Yéfim itch was buried. Only Mikhail Averyanitch
and Dáryushka were present at the funeral.