VIII
Two years before, the in a liberal mood had decided to allow three hundred a year to pay for additional medical service in the town till the Zemstvo hospital should be opened, and the district doctor, Yevgeny Fyodoritch Hobotov, was invited to the town to assist Andrey Yefimitch. He was a very young man—not yet thirty—tall and dark, with broad cheekbones and little eyes; his had probably come from one of the many alien races of Russia. He arrived in the town without a , with a small , and a plain young woman whom he called his cook. This woman had a baby at the breast. Yevgeny Fyodoritch used to go about in a cap with a peak, and in high boots, and in the winter wore a sheepskin. He made great friends with Sergey Sergeyitch, the medical assistant, and with the , but held from the other officials, and for some reason called them . He had only one book in his , The Latest Prescriptions of the Clinic for 1881. When he went to a patient he always took this book with him. He played in the evening at the club: he did not like cards. He was very fond of using in conversation such expressions as “endless ,” “canting soft soap,” “shut up with your finicking …”
He visited the hospital twice a week, made the round of the wards, and saw outpatients. The complete absence of antiseptic treatment and the cupping roused his indignation, but he did not introduce any new system, being afraid of offending Andrey Yefimitch. He regarded his colleague as a sly old rascal, suspected him of being a man of large means, and secretly envied him. He would have been very glad to have his post.