The story takes place in a city on the Volga, in the late XIX - early XX centuries.

Sixty years ago, on one of the barges of the rich merchant Zaev, Ignat Gordeyev served as an aquifer. Strong, beautiful and intelligent, he was one of those people who do not think about the choice of means and do not know a law other than their desire. At forty, Ignat Gordeev himself owned three steamboats and a dozen barges. On the Volga, he was respected as a rich man, but they gave him the nickname "Shaly", because his life did not flow in a straight line, and now and then he boiled rebelliously, rushing out of the rut. It was as if three souls lived in Ignat's body. One of them, the most powerful, was greedy, and when Ignat obeyed her, he became a man seized with an indomitable passion for work. But, giving a lot of energy to the pursuit of the ruble, he was not petty, and sometimes found sincere indifference to his property. From time to time, usually in the spring, a second soul woke up in it - the violent and lustful soul of an beast irritated by hunger. It was like a volcano of mud boiling in it, it drank, debauched, soldered others and lived like this for weeks. Then he suddenly came home as dumb and dumb as a sheep, listening to the reproaches of his wife and standing on his knees for several hours in a row in front of the images - a third soul took power over him. But in all three stripes of life Ignat did not leave one passionate desire - to have a son. His wife, a fat, well-fed woman, gave birth to four daughters during his nine years of marriage, but they all died in infancy. After each birth, Ignat beat his wife with pleasure because she did not give birth to a son.

Once, while on business in Samara, he received news of the death of his wife. Ignat ordered her godfather to bury Mayakin, then he served in the church a requiem and decided to get married as soon as possible. He was forty years old at that time. In all his powerful figure was a lot of healthy and rough beauty. Less than six months later, Ignat married Natalia Fominishna, the daughter of an Ural Cossack Old Believer. He loved his tall, slender beauty-wife and was proud of her, but soon began to carefully look at her. Natalia was thoughtful and indifferent to everything, nothing interested this strange woman. She was always thoughtful and far, as if looking for some meaning in her life, but could not find it. Only godfather Mayakin, smart and joker, sometimes caused her a pale smile.

When Natalia announced her pregnancy, Ignat began to go after his wife, like a small child. Pregnancy made Natalia even more focused and silent. She could not stand the difficult birth and died giving birth to Ignat the long-awaited son. Ignat christened his son Thomas and gave him to the family of the godfather Mayakin, whose wife also recently gave birth. Mayakin lived in a huge two-story house, the windows of which were shaded by mighty old linden trees, which is why strict twilight always reigned in the rooms. The family was pious - the smell of wax and incense filled the house, repentant sighs and prayer words ran through the stuffy atmosphere, female figures in dark dresses silently moved around the rooms. The family of Jacob Tarasovich Mayakin consisted of himself, his wife Antonina Ivanovna, daughter and five relatives, the youngest of whom was thirty-four years old. Mayakin also had his son Taras, but his name was not mentioned in the family - Jacob renounced his son after he left for Moscow and married there against his father’s will. Yakov Mayakin - thin, nimble, with a fiery red beard - was the owner of the cable factory and had a shop in the city. Among the merchants, he was respected, the fame of the "brain" of man and was very fond of recalling the antiquity of his kind.

Thomas Gordeev lived in this family for six years.The big-headed, broad-chested boy seemed older than his six years, both in height and in the serious look of his almond-shaped dark eyes. For days, Thomas was busy with toys along with Mayakin's daughter, Any. Thomas lived together with the girl, and quarrels and fights strengthened the friendship of children even more. Thomas's life was monotonous, the only entertainment was reading the Bible in the evenings. Until six years old, the boy had not heard a single fairy tale. Soon Ignat called his sister Anfisa to him, and the boy was taken to his father's house. Anfisa, a funny, tall old woman with a long hooked nose and a big mouth without teeth, at first did not like the boy, but then he saw the tenderness and affection in her black eyes. This old woman introduced Thomas to a new world, still unknown to him. Every night he fell asleep to the velvet sounds of Anfisa's voice telling a fairy tale, the supply of which was inexhaustible with her. Foma was afraid of his father, but loved. Due to the huge growth and trumpet voice, Thomas considered his father a fabulous robber and was very proud of it.

When Thomas went to the eighth year, Ignat instructed his sister to teach him to read and write. The boy learned the ABC very easily, and soon he was already reading the Psalter. The life of Thomas easily rolled forward. Being his teacher, his aunt was also a companion of his games. The sun gently and joyfully shone on a dilapidated, worn-out body that retained a young soul in itself, an old life that adorned, to the extent of strength and ability, the life path of children. Sometimes Ignat came home drunk in smoke, but Thomas was not afraid of him. And if Thomas did not say hello, his father left everything and stayed home, annoying his sister with stupid questions.

Spring came - and, fulfilling his promise, Ignat took his son with him on the ship. A new life unfolded before Thomas. He spent whole days on the captain’s bridge next to his father, looked at the endless panorama of the coast, and it seemed to him that he was going along the silver path to those fairy kingdoms where sorcerers and heroes live. But wonderful kingdoms did not appear. Cities passed by, exactly the same as the one in which Thomas lived. A real life opened before him, and Thomas was a little disappointed with her. He became less, not so stubbornly, to look into the distance with an inquiring gaze of black eyes. The steamboat team loved the boy, and he loved these nice guys who fussed with him when Ignat left for business on the town.

Once in Astrakhan, when fuel was being loaded onto a ship, Thomas heard how the engineer scolded Ignat for greed. In the evening, Thomas asked his father whether he was really greedy, and handed him the words of the driver. In the morning, the boy found out that the steamer was a new engineer. After this, Thomas felt that he was in the way, everyone, the sailors looking at him awkwardly. The incident with the driver prompted the boy to understand which threads and springs control the actions of people.

- If you see - a strong, capable person, - have pity, help him. And if he is weak, he’s not inclined to business - spit on him, pass by, ”Ignat told his son, and then told about his youth, about people and their terrible strength and weakness.

In the fall, Thomas was sent to school. On the very first day of school life, Thomas singled out from among the two boys who seemed to him more interesting than the others. The fat, red-haired African Smolin was the son of a tannery breeder, and the small, nimble and clever Nikolai Yezhov was the poor man’s son of a state-house watchman. Yezhov was the first student in the class, he gave Thomas and Smolin to write off homework in exchange for food. Ignat did not see much benefit in the teaching.

“One must learn from life itself,” he said. - The book is a dead thing. And life, the moment you stepped on it incorrectly, will shout at you with a thousand votes, and even strike, knock you down.

On Sundays, the boys gathered at Smolin, chased pigeons and raided other people's gardens. Thomas invested more hearts in such robber raids than in all other adventures and games, and behaved with courage and recklessness, which struck and angered his comrades. The danger of being caught at the crime scene did not scare, but aroused him.

So day after day, Thomas’s life, not rich in excitement, was slowly unfolding. The boy’s soul was still a quiet lake, and everything that concerned him disappeared, briefly agitating the sleepy water. After spending five years in a county school, Thomas graduated from four classes and left it a brave, black-haired guy, with a dark complexion and large dark eyes, who looked thoughtfully and naively. Lyubov Mayakina at that time was in the fifth grade of some boarding school. Meeting Thomas on the street, she nodded his head condescendingly. Lyuba was familiar with some gymnasium students, and although Yezhov was between them, Foma was not attracted to them, in their company he felt constrained. However, he did not want to study.

“I will be in my place even without science,” Thomas said mockingly. - Let the hungry learn, I do not need.

Thomas began to learn the charm of loneliness and the sweet poison of dreams. Sitting somewhere in the corner, he evoked the images of fairytale princesses in front of him, they appeared in the image of Lyuba and other acquaintances of the young ladies. He wanted to cry, he was ashamed of tears, and yet he cried quietly. Father patiently and cautiously introduced Thomas into the circle of trading affairs, took him to the stock exchange, talked about the characters of his associates. And yet, even at the age of nineteen, Thomas had something childish, naive, that distinguished him from his peers.

- As if he was waiting for something, like a veil in front of his eyes. His mother walked the same way gropingly, Ignat said grievingly and soon decided to try his son in business.

In the spring, Ignat sent Thomas with two barges of bread to Kama. The barges were driven by the “Diligent” steamboat, commanded by Efim Ilyich, a reasonable and strict captain. Sailing in April - in early May, the ship has already arrived at its destination. Barges began in front of the village, early in the morning there was a noisy crowd of women and men unloading grain. Thomas looked at the deck, covered with a smartly working crowd of people, and then the face of a woman with black eyes gently and temptingly smiled at him. His heart was beating fast. Being physically pure, he already knew, from conversations, the secrets of a man’s intimate relationship with a woman, but hoped that there was something cleaner, less rude and offensive to a person. Now, admiring the black-eyed worker, Thomas felt it was a rude attraction to her, it was shameful and scary.

Yefim noticed this and arranged a meeting with Thomas a worker. A few days later a cart approached the shore and on it a black-eyed Palageya with a chest and some things. Yefim tried to object, but Thomas shouted at him, and the captain obeyed - he was one of those people who like to feel master over himself. Soon the barge sailed to Perm. The passion that broke out in Thomas burned out of him clumsy and filled his heart with young pride, the consciousness of his human personality. This hobby, however, did not take him away from work, it aroused in him with equal strength a thirst for work and love. Palageya treated him with the force of feeling that women of her age put into their hobbies. She was truly disinterested.

Thomas was already thinking of marrying Palageya when he received a telegram from the godmother: “Immediately leave the passenger.” A few hours later, a pale and gloomy Thomas stood in the gallery of the steamboat, departing from the pier, and looked in the face of his sweet, floating away from him. A pungent feeling of resentment towards fate arose in his soul. He was too spoiled for life to make it easier to relate to the first drop of poison in a newly-minted goblet.

An excited Mayakin met Thomas and stated that Ignat had survived his mind. It turned out that Sofya Pavlovna Medynskaya, the wife of a wealthy architect, known for all her tirelessness regarding the organization of various charitable undertakings, persuaded Ignat to donate seventy-five thousand to an overnight house and a public library with a reading room. Sofya Pavlovna was considered the most beautiful woman in the city, but they talked badly about her. Thomas did not see anything wrong with this donation. Arriving home, he found Medynskaya there.In the front corner of the room, leaning on a table, sat a small woman with magnificent blond hair; dark eyes, thin eyebrows and puffy, red lips stood out sharply on her pale face. When she silently passed Thomas, he saw that her eyes were dark blue and her eyebrows were almost black.

Again, Thomas's life flowed slowly and monotonously. Father began to relate to him more strictly. Thomas himself felt something special that distinguished him from his peers, but could not understand what it was, and suspiciously watched himself. There was a lot of ambitious aspiration in him, but he lived alone and did not feel the need for friends. Thomas often recalled Palageya, and at first he was sad, but gradually her place in his dreams was taken by a small, angel-like Medynskaya. In her presence, Thomas felt awkward, huge, heavy, and this offended him. Medynskaya did not arouse sensual attraction in the youth; she was incomprehensible to him. Sometimes he felt in himself a bottomless void, which could not be filled with anything.

Meanwhile, Ignat became more restless, grouchy and increasingly complained of malaise.

“Death guards me somewhere nearby,” he said sullenly, but submissively. And indeed - soon she overturned his large, powerful body to the ground. Ignat died on Sunday morning without receiving absolution. Father's death stunned Thomas. Silence poured into his soul - heavy, motionless, absorbing all the sounds of life. He did not cry, did not yearn, and did not think about anything; sullen, pale, he concentratedly listened to this silence, which emptied his heart and, as with a vice, squeezed his brain. Mayakin ordered the funeral. At the wake of Thomas, with an insult in his heart, he looked at the fat lips and jaws chewing delicious dishes, he wanted to drive out all these people who had recently aroused respect in him.

“What are they eating here?” Did they come to the tavern? - Thomas said loudly and with malice. Mayakin began to fuss, but he could not make amends for the offense. The guests began to disperse.

Life pulled Thomas from all sides, not allowing him to concentrate on his thoughts. On the fortieth day after the death of Ignat, he attended the ceremony of laying the shelter. On the eve of Medynskaya informed him that he was elected to the committee for supervision of construction and to the honorary members of the society in which she chaired. Thomas began to visit her often. There he met with the secretary of this society, Ukhtishchev. He spoke with a high tenor and the whole man - a full, small, chubby and funny talker - looked like a brand new little bell. Thomas listened to his chatter and felt miserable, stupid, funny for everyone. And Mayakin sat next to the mayor and said something smartly to him, playing with wrinkles.

Thomas understood that among these gentlemen he did not belong. He was offended and sad from the knowledge that he could not speak as easily and as much as all these people. Lyuba Mayakina laughed at him more than once for this. Thomas did not like the daughter of the godfather, and after he learned about Mayakin's intention to marry them, he even began to avoid meeting her. Nevertheless, after the death of his father, Thomas visited the Mayakins almost every day. Soon, their relationship took the form of a somewhat strange friendship. Lyuba was of the same age as Thomas, but treated him like the eldest to the boy. Sometimes she was simple and somehow particularly friendly to him. But no matter how much time they spent talking, it only gave them a feeling of displeasure with each other, as if a wall of misunderstanding grew and separated them. Lyuba often persuaded Thomas to continue his doctrine, to read more, and reproached him for his limitations.

- I do not like this. Fiction, deception, Thomas replied displeasedly.

Lyuba was unhappy with her life. Her father did not let her learn, believing that the destiny of a woman was marriage, and courage was not enough to escape. Often she repeated that she lives in prison, that she dreams of equality and happiness for all people. Thomas listened to her speech, but did not understand, and this angered Lyuba. The godfather Mayakin inspired Thomas completely different.

- Each human case has two faces. One in sight is false, the other hidden - it is the present. He needs to be found in order to understand the meaning of the case, ”he insisted. Speaking against the construction of the shelter, Mayakin said:

- Now we have come up with: to lock the poor in houses so special and so that they would not walk in the streets, we would not wake our conscience. That's what these different houses are for, to hide the truth they are.

To Thomas these speeches of the godfather were stupefying. His ambivalent attitude towards Mayakin was strengthened: listening to him with eager curiosity, he felt that every meeting with the godfather in him increased his hostile, close to fear, feeling for the old man. Mayakin's laughter, like a screech of rusty loops, sometimes aroused physical disgust in Thomas. All this strengthened Thomas's confidence that the godfather firmly decided to marry him to Lyuba. Luba liked him, and seemed dangerous, he fancied that she did not live, but was raving in reality. Thomas's trick on his father’s wake spread among the merchants and created him an unflattering reputation. Rich people seemed greedy to him for money, always ready to cheat each other. But Mayakin’s monotonous speeches soon reached their goal. Thomas listened to them and realized the purpose of life: you need to be better than others. The ambitiousness awakened by the old man deeply ingrained in his heart, but did not fill him, for the attitude of Thomas to Medynsky assumed the character that was to take. He was drawn to her, but with her he was timid, became clumsy and suffered from it. Thomas belonged to Medynskaya with adoration; in him there was always a consciousness of her superiority over him. Medynskaya played with the young man, like a cat with a mouse, and enjoyed it.

Once, Thomas and the godfather returned from the backwash after inspecting the ships. Mayakin told Thomas what Medynskaya’s reputation was in the city.

“You go to her and say bluntly:“ I wish to be your lover - I’m a young man, don’t take expensive, ”he taught the godson. At these words, Thomas's face extended, and there was a lot of heavy and bitter amazement in his longing look.

Overcome by melancholy and revengeful anger, Thomas arrived in the city. Mayakin, throwing Medynskaya in the mud, made her accessible to the godson, and the thought of the woman's accessibility increased her attraction to her. He went to Vera Pavlovna, intending to directly and simply tell her what he wanted from her.

- What am I to you? She told him. “You need a different girlfriend.” I'm already an old woman. Do not listen to anyone other than your heart. Live as it tells you.

Thomas went home and just carried this woman in his chest - so her image was bright. His house, six large rooms, was empty. Aunt Anfisa left for the monastery and, perhaps, will not return from there. We should have married, but Thomas didn’t want to see any girl he knew as his wife.

A week passed after a conversation with Medynskaya. Day and night, her image stood in front of Thomas, causing a aching feeling in her heart. Work and longing did not prevent him from thinking about life. He began to listen sensitively to everything that people said about life, and felt that their complaints aroused in him distrust. Silently, he looked at everyone with a suspicious look, and a thin wrinkle cut through his forehead. Once, Mayakin sent Thomas in the case to Ananiy Savvich Schurov, a major timber merchant. There were terrible rumors about this tall old man with a long gray beard. They said that he sheltered a convict who worked for him fake money in his bathhouse, and then killed him and burned him with the bathhouse. Thomas also knew that Schurov had outlived two wives, then beat his wife away from his son, and when the daughter-in-law died, he took a dumb girl-beggar to her house and she gave birth to him a dead child. Walking to Schurov, Thomas felt that he had become strangely interesting to him.

Schurov had a bad opinion about Mayakin, called him a cursed pharmacon.

“In your years, Ignat was clear as glass,” said Schurov to Thomas. - And I look at you - I don’t see - what are you? And you yourself, man, don’t know this, that’s why you’ll disappear.

That evening, Thomas went to the club and met Ukhtishchev there.From him, Thomas learned that Sofya Pavlovna would go abroad tomorrow all summer. Some fat and mustachioed man intervened in their conversation and spoke badly about Medynskaya, calling her a cocotte. Thomas quietly growled, grabbed the curly hair of a mustachioed man and began to haul him across the floor, experiencing burning pleasure. At these moments, he experienced a feeling of liberation from the boring heaviness that had long constrained him. Foma was torn from this man, who turned out to be the son-in-law of the vice-governor. Thomas, however, was not afraid. Everything that Thomas did this evening aroused great interest in Ukhtishchev. He decided to shake, entertain the guy and led him to his familiar young ladies.

On the third day after the scene at the club, Thomas found himself seven miles from the city, on the forest pier of the merchant Zvantsev in the company of the son of this merchant, Ukhtishchev, some gentleman in sideburns and four ladies. Dame Thomas was a slender, dark-skinned brunette with wavy hair named Alexandra. Thomas had been with them for three days, and still could not stop. They wrote about his outrages in the newspaper. Jacob Mayakin scolded him with the last words, but could not stop. Love silently listened to her father. Getting older, she changed her attitude towards the old man. Lyuba saw his loneliness and her feeling for her father became warmer. About writers Mayakin told Lyuba:

- Russia was embarrassed, and there was nothing persistent in it, everything was shaken! Great freedom has been given to people to intellectualize, and nothing is allowed to be done - from this a person does not live, but decays and stinks. The girl was silent, stunned by her father’s speeches, not being able to object, to free herself from them. She felt that he was turning her away from what seemed so simple and bright to her.

That same morning, Yefim, captain of Yermak, came to Mayakin. He said that the drunk Thomas ordered him to be bound, he himself took control of the barge and broke it. After that, Yefim asked to let him go, saying that he could not live without a master.

Thomas recalled the past months, and it seemed to him that he was carrying somewhere a muddy, hot stream. Among the hustle and bustle of diners, Sasha alone was always calm and even. Thomas was attracted by some secret hidden in this woman, and at the same time he felt that he did not love her, he did not need her. Parting with Thomas, Sasha said to him:

- Your character is heavy. Boring. Exactly you were born from two fathers.

Thomas watched a barge being pulled out of the river and thought: “Where is my place? Where is my business? ” He saw himself superfluous among self-confident people who were ready to pick up tens of thousands of pounds for him from the bottom of the river. A strange excitement took hold of Thomas: he passionately wanted to join this work. Suddenly he rushed to the gate with great leaps, pale with excitement. For the first time in his life, he felt such a spiritualizing feeling, he got drunk on him and poured out his joy in loud, jubilant cries in harmony with the workers. But after a while this joy left, leaving behind a void.

The next morning, Thomas and Sasha stood on the gangway of the ship, approaching the pier at the mouth. At the side of the pier they were met by Jacob Mayakin. Having sent Sasha to the city, Thomas went to the hotel to the godfather.

- Give me full will, or take my whole business into your own hands. Everything, to the ruble!

This escaped from Thomas unexpectedly for him, he suddenly realized that he could become a completely free person. Until that moment, he was entangled in something, and now the bonds themselves fell off him so easily and simply. An alarming and joyful hope flashed in his chest. But Mayakin refused and threatened that he would put him in a madhouse. Thomas knew that the godfather would not spare him. The self-confidence of Yakov Tarasovich blew up Thomas, he spoke, gritting his teeth:

- What do you boast about? Where is your son? What is your daughter - what is it? Tell me - why are you living? Who will remember you?

Saying that he’ll make a fortune, Thomas went out. Jacob Mayakin was left alone, and the wrinkles on his cheeks trembled with an alarming tremor.

After this quarrel, Thomas walked around with bitterness, full of vengeful feelings for the people who surrounded him.Of course, there were women. He laughed at them, but never raised his hand at them. Sasha left Thomas, entered the maintenance of the son of some vodka breeder. Thomas was glad of this: she was tired of him, and her cold indifference frightened him. So Thomas lived, cherishing the vague hope of moving somewhere to the edge of life, out of this bustle, and looking around. At night, closing his eyes, he imagined a huge, dark crowd of people crowding somewhere in a hollow full of dusty fog. This crowd circled in confusion in one place, noise and howling are heard, people crawl, crushing each other like blind people. Over their heads, like bats, money is worn. This picture was entrenched in the head of Thomas, each time becoming more and more colorful. He wanted to stop this senseless fuss, to direct all people in one direction, and not against each other, but he did not have the right words. The desire for freedom grew in him, but he could not escape from the bonds of his wealth.

Mayakin acted in such a way that Thomas felt the weight of the duties lying on him every day, but Thomas felt that he was not the master in his business, but only a small part of it. This annoyed him and pushed him further away from the old man. Thomas increasingly wanted to get out of business, at least at the cost of his death. He soon learned that the godfather had started a rumor that Thomas was out of his mind and that he would have to establish custody. Thomas accepted this and continued his drunken life, and the godfather vigilantly watched him.

After a quarrel with Thomas, Mayakin realized that he had no heir, and instructed his daughter to write a letter to Taras Mayakin, to call him home. Lubu Yakov Tarasovich decided to marry Afrikan Smolin, who studied abroad and recently returned to his hometown to start his own business. Recently, Lyuba has come up with the idea of ​​marriage more and more often - she saw no other way out of her loneliness. She had long gone through the desire to study, from the books she read in her there was a murky sediment from which the desire for personal independence developed. She felt that life was bypassing her.

And Thomas kept up all and kolobrodil. He woke up in a small room with two windows and saw a little black man who was sitting at the table and scratching his pen on paper. In the little man, Thomas recognized his school friend Nikolai Yezhov. After gymnasium, Yezhov graduated from the university, but did not achieve much - he became a feuilletonist in a local newspaper. In his failures, he blamed not himself, but people whose kindness he used. He said that there is no man on earth who is even worse and nastier than giving alms; there is no man more unfortunate than accepting it. In Thomas Yezhov felt "great insolence of the heart." Yezhov's speech enriched the language of Thomas, but dimly illuminated the darkness of his soul.

Mayakin’s decision to marry his daughter was firm, and he brought Smolin to dinner to introduce his daughter. Lyuba’s dreams of a husband-friend, an educated person, were strangled in her by the inexorable will of her father, and now she is getting married because it is time. Lyuba wrote a long letter to her brother, in which she begged him to return. Taras answered dryly and briefly that he would soon be on business on the Volga and would not fail to go to his father. This business coldness upset Luba, but the old man liked it. Lyuba thought of her brother as an ascetic who, at the cost of ruined youth in exile, gained the right to judge life and people.

Smolin has changed little - the same red, all freckled, only his mustache grew long and lush, but his eyes seemed to be larger. Lyuba liked his manners and appearance, his education, and the room made it seem lighter. The shy hope for happiness flared up brighter in the girl’s heart.

Having learned from Yezhov what events are happening in the godfather’s house, Thomas decided to visit him and witnessed the meeting of his father and the prodigal son. Taras turned out to be a short, thin man, like a father. It turned out that Taras was not in hard labor. He spent about nine months in a Moscow prison, then was exiled to Siberia for settlement and lived for six years in the Lensky mountain district.Then he started his own business, married the daughter of the owner of the gold mines, was widowed, his children also died. Yakov Tarasovich was unusually proud son. Now he saw the heir in him. Lyuba did not take her admiring eyes from her brother. Thomas did not want to go to the table, where three happy people are sitting, he understood that he did not belong there. Going out into the street, he felt resentment at the Mayakins: after all, they were the only people close to him. From each impression, Thomas immediately had the thought of his inability to live, and this laid a brick on his chest.

In the evening, Thomas again went to the Mayakins. The godfather was not at home, Luba and his brother were drinking tea. Thomas also sat down at the table. He did not like Taras. This man worshiped the British and believed that only they had a true love of work. Thomas said that work is not all for a man, but then he saw that his thoughts were not interesting to Tarasu. Thomas became bored with this indifferent person. He wanted to tell Lyubov something offensive about her brother, but he did not find words and left home.

The next morning, Jacob Mayakin and Thomas attended a gala dinner at the merchant Kononov, who consecrated a new steamer that day. There were thirty guests, all respectable people, the color of the local merchants. Thomas did not find a comrade among them, and kept aloof, sullen and pale. He was haunted by the thought of why the godfather was so affectionate with him today, and why he persuaded him to come here. Among these people there was almost no one about whom Thomas would not have known anything criminal. Many of them were at enmity with each other, but now they merged into one dense mass, and this repelled Thomas and aroused shyness in front of them.

During lunch, Yakov Tarasovich was asked to give a speech. With his usual boastful self-confidence, Mayakin began to say that the merchants are the guardian of culture and the stronghold of the Russian people. Thomas could not bear it. Gritting his teeth, he silently looked at the merchants with burning eyes. At the sight of his wolfish evil face, the merchants froze for a second. Thomas with unspeakable hatred examined the faces of the audience and exclaimed:

- Not the life you made - the prison. You did not arrange the order - forged the chains on a person. Stuffy, cramped, nowhere to turn a living soul. Do you realize that only with human patience are you alive?

One after another the merchants began to disperse along the ship. This annoyed Thomas even more: he would like to rivet them in his own words and did not find such words in himself. And then Gordeev began to remember everything that he knew about these criminal people, without missing a single one. Thomas spoke and saw that his words had a good effect on these people. Turning to everyone at once, Thomas understood that his words did not hurt them as deeply as he would like. But as soon as he spoke about each separately, the attitude to his words changed dramatically. He growled joyfully, seeing how his speeches acted, how these people writhed and rushed about under the blows of his words. Thomas felt like a fabulous hero, beating monsters.

A crowd gathered near Yakov Tarasovich Mayakin and listened to his quiet speech, angrily and nodding their heads affirmatively. Thomas burst into loud laughter, cocking his head high. At this moment, several people rushed to Thomas, squeezed him with their bodies, tightly tied his hands and feet, and dragged him dragged to the side. A crowd of people stood above him and said evil and offensive things to him, but their words did not hurt his heart. In the depths of his soul grew some great bitter feeling. When Thomas untied his legs, he looked at everyone and with a miserable smile said quietly:

- Yours took.

Thomas became taller and thinner. Mayakin spoke quietly with the merchants about custody. Thomas felt crushed by this dark mass of strong spirit people. Now he did not understand what he had done to these people and why he had done it, and even felt something like shame for himself before himself. In the chest, some kind of dust showered on the heart. The merchants looked at his suffering, wet with tears face and silently walked away.And Thomas was left alone with his hands tied behind his back at the table, where everything was overturned destroyed.

Three years have passed. Yakov Tarasovich Mayakin died after a brief but very painful agony, leaving his fortune to his son, daughter and son-in-law Afrika Smolin. Yezhov was expelled from the city for something shortly after the accident on the ship. A large trading house “Taras Mayakin and Afrikan Smolin” arose in the city. About Thomas was not heard. They said that after leaving the hospital Mayakin sent him outside the Urals to his mother's relatives.

Recently, Thomas appeared in the city. Almost always drunk, he appears now gloomy, then smiling a pathetic and sad smile of a blessed one. He lives with his godmother in the yard, in the outhouse. Those who know him and the townspeople often laugh at him. Thomas very rarely approaches his caller; he avoids people and does not like to talk to them. But if he comes up, they say to him:

- Well, about the doomsday say a word, and, the prophet.