1 And so let it be a story A PROPOS of the falling snow.
2 The gravediggers must have sworn at getting drenched by the snow.
3 I stood in the snow, gazing into the troubled darkness and pondered this.
4 The wet snow was falling in big flakes; I unbuttoned myself, regardless of it.
5 The snow drifted under my great-coat, under my coat, under my cravat, and melted there.
6 I fancy it is the wet snow that has reminded me of that incident which I cannot shake off now.
7 The little shaggy piebald horse was also covered with snow and coughing, I remember that very well.
8 I walked all the way home, in spite of the fact that the melting snow was still falling in heavy flakes.
9 At the steps was standing a solitary night sledge-driver in a rough peasant coat, powdered over with the still falling, wet, and as it were warm, snow.
10 And all at once I felt horribly ashamed, so ashamed that I stopped the horse, got out of the sledge, and stood still in the snow in the middle of the street.
11 It was a still night and the snow was coming down in masses and falling almost perpendicularly, covering the pavement and the empty street as though with a pillow.