A package with a small jewelry case in the name of the princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina the messenger conveyed it through the maid. The princess reprimanded her, but Dasha said that the messenger immediately ran away, and she did not dare to tear the birthday girl away from the guests.

Inside the case was gold, of low standard blown bracelet, covered with pomegranates, among which was a small green pebble. The letter enclosed in the case contained congratulations on Angel's Day and a request to accept the bracelet that belonged to his great-grandmother. The green stone is a very rare green garnet that imparts the gift of providence and protects men from violent death. The letter ended with the words: “Your humble servant G.S.Zh. before death and after death.”

Vera took it in her hands bracelet- alarming, thick red living lights lit up inside the stones. “Definitely blood!” - she thought and returned to the living room.

Prince Vasily Lvovich was at that moment demonstrating his humorous home album, which had just been opened on the “story” “Princess Vera and the Telegraph Operator in Love.” “It’s better not to,” she asked. But the husband had already begun a commentary on his own drawings, full of brilliant humor. Here a girl named Vera receives a letter with kissing doves, signed by telegraph operator P.P.Zh. Here young Vasya Shein returns Vera’s wedding ring: “I don’t dare interfere with your happiness, and yet it’s my duty to warn you: telegraph operators are seductive, but treacherous." But Vera marries the handsome Vasya Shein, but the telegraph operator continues to persecute him. Here he is, disguised as a chimney sweep, entering Princess Vera’s boudoir. So, having changed clothes, he enters their kitchen as a dishwasher. Finally, he is in a madhouse, etc.

“Gentlemen, who wants some tea?” - Vera asked. After tea the guests began to leave. The old general Anosov, whom Vera and her sister Anna called grandfather, asked the princess to explain what was true in the prince’s story.

G.S.Zh. (and not P.P.Zh.) began to pursue her with letters two years before her marriage. Obviously, he constantly watched her, knew where she went at the evenings, how she was dressed. When Vera, also in writing, asked not to bother her with his persecutions, he fell silent about love and limited himself to congratulations on holidays, like today, on her name day.

The old man was silent. “Maybe this is a maniac? Or maybe, Verochka, yours life path crossed precisely the kind of love that women dream of and that men are no longer capable of.”

After the guests left, Vera’s husband and her brother Nikolai decided to find the admirer and return the bracelet. The next day they already knew the address of G.S.Zh. It turned out to be a man of about thirty to thirty-five. He did not deny anything and admitted the indecency of his behavior. Having discovered some understanding and even sympathy in the prince, he explained to him that, alas, he loved his wife and neither deportation nor prison would kill this feeling. Except death. He must admit that he has squandered government money and will be forced to flee the city, so that they will not hear from him again.

The next day, Vera read in the newspaper about the suicide of the control chamber official G.S. Zheltkov, and in the evening the postman brought his letter.

Zheltkov wrote that for him his whole life lies only in her, in Vera Nikolaevna. This is the love with which God rewarded him for something. As he leaves, he repeats in delight: “Hallowed be Thy name.” If she remembers him, then let her play the D major part of Beethoven’s “Appassionata”; he thanks her from the bottom of his heart for being his only joy in life.

Vera could not help but go to say goodbye to this man. Her husband completely understood her impulse.

The face of the man lying in the coffin was serene, as if he had learned a deep secret. Vera raised his head, placed a large red rose under his neck and kissed his forehead. She understood that the love that every woman dreams of passed her by.

Returning home, she found only her institute friend, the famous pianist Jenny Reiter. “Play something for me,” she asked.

And Jenny (lo and behold!) began to play the part of “Appassionata” that Zheltkov indicated in the letter. She listened, and words formed in her mind, like couplets, ending with the prayer: “Hallowed be Thy name.” "What happened to you?" - Jenny asked, seeing her tears. “...He has forgiven me now. “Everything is fine,” Vera answered.

Garnet bracelet

Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina, the wife of the leader of the nobility, had already been living with her husband at the dacha for some time, because their city apartment was being renovated. Today was her name day, and therefore guests were supposed to arrive. The first to appear was Vera's sister, Anna Nikolaevna Friesse, who was married to a very rich and very stupid man who did nothing, but was registered with some charitable society and had the rank of chamber cadet. Grandfather, General Anosov, whom the sisters love very much, is due to arrive. The guests began to arrive after five o'clock. Among them is the famous pianist Jenny Reuter, a friend of Princess Vera from the Smolny Institute, Anna’s husband brought with him Professor Speshnikov and the local vice-governor von Seck. His widowed sister Lyudmila Lvovna comes with Prince Vasily Lvovich. Lunch is very fun, everyone has known each other well for a long time.

Vera Nikolaevna suddenly noticed that there were thirteen guests. This scared her a little. Everyone sat down to play poker. Vera did not want to play, and she was heading to the terrace, where tea was being served, when the maid beckoned her from the living room with a somewhat mysterious look. She handed her the package that the messenger had brought half an hour ago.

Vera opened the package - under the paper there was a small red plush jewelry case. It contained an oval gold bracelet, and inside it was a carefully folded note. She unfolded it. The handwriting seemed familiar to her. She put the note aside and decided to look at the bracelet first. “It was gold, low-grade, very thick, but blown, and on the outside it was completely covered with small old, poorly polished garnets. But in the middle of the bracelet rose, surrounding some old small green stone, five beautiful cabochon garnets, each the size of When Vera, with a random movement, successfully turned the bracelet in front of the fire of an electric light bulb, then, deep under their smooth egg-shaped surface, lovely, rich red living lights suddenly lit up.” Then she read the lines written in small, superb calligraphic handwriting. It was a congratulation on Angel's Day. The author reported that this bracelet belonged to his great-grandmother, then his late mother wore it. The pebble in the middle is quite rare variety pomegranate - green pomegranate. He further wrote: “According to an old legend preserved in our family, it has the ability to impart the gift of foresight to women who wear it and drives away heavy thoughts from them, while it protects men from violent death... I beg you not to be angry with me. I blush at the memory about my audacity seven years ago, when I dared to write stupid and wild letters to you, young lady, and even expect an answer to them. Now all that remains in me is reverence, eternal admiration and slavish devotion...” “Should I show it to Vasya or not? And if we show it, when? Now or after the guests? No, it’s better after - now not only this unfortunate man will be funny, but I will be funny too,” Vera thought and could not take her eyes off the five scarlet bloody lights trembling inside. five pomegranates.

Meanwhile, the evening went on as usual. Prince Vasily Lvovich showed his sister, Anosov and brother-in-law a homemade humorous album with handwritten drawings. Their laughter attracted everyone else. There was a story: “Princess Vera and the telegraph operator in love.” “It’s better not to,” Vera said, quietly touching her husband’s shoulder. But he either didn’t hear or didn’t pay attention. He humorously recounts old letters from a man in love with Vera. He wrote them when she was not yet married. Prince Vasily calls the author a telegraph operator. The husband keeps talking and saying... "Gentlemen, who wants some tea?" - asked Vera Nikolaevna.

General Anosov tells his goddaughters about the love he had in his youth in Bulgaria with a Bulgarian girl. When the time came for the troops to leave, they swore an oath of eternal mutual love to each other and said goodbye forever. "That's all?" - Lyudmila Lvovna asked disappointedly. Later, when almost all the guests had left, Vera, seeing off her grandfather, quietly said to her husband: “Come and look... there in my table, in a drawer, there is a red case, and there is a letter in it. Read it.”

It was so dark that we had to feel our way with our feet. The general led Vera by the arm. “This Lyudmila Lvovna is funny,” he suddenly spoke, as if continuing the flow of his thoughts out loud. “But I want to say that people in our time have forgotten how to love. I don’t see real love. And I didn’t see it in my time!” Marriage, in his opinion, means nothing. “Take Vasya and me, for example. Can we call our marriage unhappy?” - Vera asked. Anosov was silent for a long time. Then he said reluctantly: “Well, okay... let’s say it’s an exception.” Why do people get married? As for women, they are afraid to remain as girls, they want to be a mistress, a lady, independent... Men have different motives. Fatigue from single life, from disorder in the house, from tavern dinners... Again, the thought of children... Sometimes there are thoughts about the dowry. Where is the love? Is love unselfish, selfless, not waiting for reward? “Wait, wait, Vera, now you want me again about your Vasya? Really, I love him. He’s a good guy. Who knows, maybe the future will show his love in the light of great beauty. But you understand what kind of love I say. Love should be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world! No life’s conveniences, calculations and compromises should concern it.” "Have you ever seen such love, grandfather?" “No,” the old man answered decisively. “I actually know two similar cases...

In one regiment of our division... there was the wife of the regimental commander... Bony, red-haired, thin... In addition, a morphine addict. And then one day, in the fall, they send a newly minted ensign to their regiment... fresh from military school. After a month, this old horse completely mastered him. He is a page, he is a servant, he is a slave... By Christmas she was already tired of him. She returned to one of her former... passions. But he couldn't. Follows her like a ghost. He was all exhausted, emaciated, blackened... And then one spring they organized some kind of May Day or picnic in the regiment... They returned back at night on foot along the road railway. Suddenly a freight train comes towards them... she suddenly whispers in the ensign’s ear: “You all say that you love me. But if I order you, you probably won’t throw yourself under the train.” And he, without answering a word, ran and ran under the train. He, they say, calculated correctly... so it would have been neatly cut in half. But some idiot decided to hold him back and push him away. Yes, I didn’t master it. The ensign grabbed the rails with his hands, and both his hands were chopped off... And the man disappeared... in the most vile way..."

The general tells another story. When the regiment was leaving for war and the train had already started moving, the wife loudly shouted to her husband: “Remember, take care of Volodya [your lover]! If anything happens to him, I will leave home and never return. And I will take the children.” At the front, this captain, a brave soldier, looked after this coward and quitter Vishnyakov, like a nanny, like a mother. Everyone was happy when they learned that Vishnyakov died in the hospital from typhus...

The general asks Vera what the story is with the telegraph operator. Vera spoke in detail about some madman who began to pursue her with his love two years before her marriage. She has never seen him and does not know his last name. He signed himself G.S.Zh. Once he mentioned that he served in some government institution as a small official - he did not mention a word about the telegraph. He must have been constantly watching her, because in his letters he indicated exactly where she was in the evenings... and how she was dressed. At first his letters were somewhat vulgar, although quite chaste. But one day Vera wrote to him so that he would not bother her anymore. Since then, he began to limit himself to congratulations on holidays. Princess Vera spoke about the bracelet and about the strange letter from her mysterious admirer. “Yes,” the general drawled at last. “Maybe he’s just an abnormal fellow... or... maybe your path in life, Verochka, was crossed by just such a love...”

Vera's brother Nikolai and Vasily Lvovich are concerned that the unknown person will boast to someone that Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina is accepting gifts from him, then send something else, then go to jail for embezzlement, and the Sheina princes will be called as witnesses... They decided that he needs to be found, return the bracelet and read the notation. “For some reason I felt sorry for this unfortunate man,” Vera said hesitantly.

Vera's husband and brother find the right apartment on the eighth floor, climbing a dirty, spit-stained staircase. The occupant of the Zheltkov room was a man “very pale, with a gentle girlish face, blue eyes and a stubborn childish chin with a dimple in the middle; he must have been about thirty, thirty-five years old.” He silently takes back his bracelet and apologizes for his behavior. Having learned that the gentlemen were going to turn to the authorities for help, Zheltkov laughed, sat down on the sofa and lit a cigarette. “Now the most difficult moment in my life has come. And I must, prince, speak to you without any conventions... Will you listen to me?” “I’m listening,” Shein said. Zheltkov says that he loves Shein’s wife. It's hard for him to say, but seven years of hopeless and polite love give him this right. He knows that he can never stop loving her. They cannot end this feeling of his with anything, except perhaps by death. Zheltkov asks permission to talk on the phone with Princess Vera Nikolaevna. He will convey to them the contents of the conversation.

He returned ten minutes later. His eyes sparkled and were deep, as if filled with unshed tears. “I’m ready,” he said, “and tomorrow you won’t hear anything about me. It’s as if I died for you. But there’s one condition - I’m telling you this, Prince Vasily Lvovich - you see, I squandered government money, and I after all, I have to flee this city. Will you allow me to write more? last letter Princess Vera Nikolaevna?" Shein allows it.

In the evening at the dacha, Vasily Lvovich told his wife in detail about his date with Zheltkov. It was as if he felt obligated to do this. At night, Vera says: “I know that this man will kill himself.” Vera never read newspapers, but on this day for some reason she unfolded exactly that sheet and came across the column where it was reported about the suicide of the control chamber official G.S. Zheltkov. All day long she walked around the flower garden and the orchard and thought about a man whom she had never seen. Maybe this was the real, selfless, true love that grandfather spoke about?

At six o'clock the postman brought Zheltkov's letter. He wrote this: “It’s not my fault, Vera Nikolaevna, that God was pleased to send me, as great happiness, love for you... for me, my whole life lies only in you... I am infinitely grateful to you just for the fact that you exist. I tested myself - this is not a disease, not a manic idea - this is love with which God wanted to reward me for something... Leaving, I say in delight: “Hallowed be your name.” you in the circus in the box, and then in the first second I said to myself: I love her because there is nothing like her in the world, there is nothing better, there is no animal, no plant, no star, no person more beautiful and tender than you It’s as if all the beauty of the earth was embodied in you... I cut everything off, but still I think and I’m even sure that you will remember me. If you remember me, then... play or order me to play the sonata in D major. No. 2, op. 2... May God grant you happiness, and may nothing temporary and worldly disturb your beautiful soul. I kiss your hands.

Vera goes to where Zheltkov lived. The owner of the apartment tells what a wonderful person he was. About the bracelet, she says that before writing the letter, he came to her and asked her to hang the bracelet on the icon. Vera enters the room where Zheltkov is lying on the table: “Deep importance was in his closed eyes, and his lips smiled blissfully and serenely, as if, before parting with life, he had learned some deep and sweet secret that resolved his entire human life. .. Vera... put a flower under his neck. At that second she realized that the love that every woman dreams of had passed her by... And, parting the hair on the dead man’s forehead in both directions, she squeezed him tightly with her hands. whiskey and kissed him on his cold, damp forehead with a long, friendly kiss." Before Vera leaves, the hostess says that before his death Zheltkov asked that if any lady came to look at him, then tell her that Beethoven had the best work... she showed the title written on a piece of paper.

Returning home late, Vera Nikolaevna was glad that neither her husband nor her brother were at home. But Jenny Reiter was waiting for her, and she asked her to play something for her. She almost did not doubt for a single second that Jenny would play the very passage from the second sonata that this dead man with the ridiculous surname Zheltkov asked for. And so it was. She recognized this piece from the very first chords. And words formed in her mind. In her thoughts they coincided so much with the music that it was as if they were verses that ended with the words: “Hallowed be thy name.”

“I remember your every step, smile, look, the sound of your gait. My last memories are enveloped in sweet sadness, quiet, beautiful sadness... I leave alone, silently, as God and fate willed. “Hallowed be thy name.” Princess Vera hugged the trunk of the acacia tree, pressed herself against it and cried... And at this time the amazing music, as if obeying her grief, continued:

"Calm down, darling, calm down, calm down. Do you remember about me? Remember? You are my only and last love. Calm down, I’m with you. Think about me, and I’ll be with you, because you and I loved each other only one thing moment, but forever. Do you remember me?.. I feel your tears. Calm down. It’s so sweet for me to sleep...” Vera, all in tears, said: “No, no, he has forgiven me now. ".

Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin

"Garnet bracelet"

The messenger handed over a package with a small jewelry case addressed to Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina through the maid. The princess reprimanded her, but Dasha said that the messenger immediately ran away, and she did not dare to tear the birthday girl away from the guests.

Inside the case was a gold, low-grade blown bracelet covered with garnets, among which was a small green stone. The letter enclosed in the case contained congratulations on Angel's Day and a request to accept a bracelet that belonged to his great-grandmother. The green pebble is a very rare green garnet that conveys the gift of providence and protects men from violent death. The letter ended with the words: “Your humble servant G.S.Zh. before death and after death.”

Vera took the bracelet in her hands - alarming, thick red living lights lit up inside the stones. “Definitely blood!” - she thought and returned to the living room.

Prince Vasily Lvovich was demonstrating at that moment his humorous home album, which had just been opened on the “story” “Princess Vera and the Telegraph Operator in Love.” “It’s better not to,” she asked. But the husband had already begun a commentary on his own drawings, full of brilliant humor. Here a girl named Vera receives a letter with kissing doves, signed by telegraph operator P.P.Zh. Here young Vasya Shein returns Vera’s wedding ring: “I don’t dare interfere with your happiness, and yet it’s my duty to warn you: telegraph operators are seductive, but treacherous." But Vera marries the handsome Vasya Shein, but the telegraph operator continues to persecute him. Here he is, disguised as a chimney sweep, entering Princess Vera’s boudoir. So, having changed clothes, he enters their kitchen as a dishwasher. Finally, he is in a madhouse, etc.

“Gentlemen, who wants some tea?” - Vera asked. After tea the guests began to leave. The old general Anosov, whom Vera and her sister Anna called grandfather, asked the princess to explain what was true in the prince’s story.

G.S.Zh. (and not P.P.Zh.) began to pursue her with letters two years before her marriage. Obviously, he constantly watched her, knew where she went at the evenings, how she was dressed. When Vera, also in writing, asked not to bother her with his persecutions, he fell silent about love and limited himself to congratulations on holidays, like today, on her name day.

The old man was silent. “Maybe this is a maniac? Or maybe, Verochka, your path in life was crossed by precisely the kind of love that women dream of and that men are no longer capable of.”

After the guests left, Vera’s husband and her brother Nikolai decided to find the admirer and return the bracelet. The next day they already knew the address of G.S.Zh. It turned out to be a man of about thirty to thirty-five. He did not deny anything and admitted the indecency of his behavior. Having discovered some understanding and even sympathy in the prince, he explained to him that, alas, he loved his wife and neither deportation nor prison would kill this feeling. Except death. He must admit that he has squandered government money and will be forced to flee the city, so that they will not hear from him again.

The next day, Vera read in the newspaper about the suicide of the control chamber official G.S. Zheltkov, and in the evening the postman brought his letter.

Zheltkov wrote that for him his whole life lies only in her, in Vera Nikolaevna. This is the love with which God rewarded him for something. As he leaves, he repeats in delight: “Hallowed be Thy name.” If she remembers him, then let her play the D major movement of Beethoven’s “Appassionata”; he thanks her from the bottom of his heart for being his only joy in life.

Vera could not help but go to say goodbye to this man. Her husband completely understood her impulse.

The face of the man lying in the coffin was serene, as if he had learned a deep secret. Vera raised his head, placed a large red rose under his neck and kissed his forehead. She understood that the love that every woman dreams of passed her by.

Returning home, she found only her institute friend, the famous pianist Jenny Reiter. “Play something for me,” she asked.

And Jenny (lo and behold!) began to play the part of “Appassionata” that Zheltkov indicated in the letter. She listened, and words formed in her mind, like couplets, ending with the prayer: “Hallowed be Thy name.” "What happened to you?" - Jenny asked, seeing her tears. “...He has forgiven me now. “Everything is fine,” Vera answered.

The birthday girl, Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina, received a package with a jewelry case. It contained a gold but low-grade bracelet with garnets. The letter contained congratulations and a request to accept the gift. The bracelet, the letter said, was from my great-grandmother, and the green stone in it was an extremely rare green garnet, which brings the gift of providence, protecting men from violent death. The signature read: “Your humble servant G.S.Zh. before death and after death.”

Vera took the bracelet; the stones shimmered with an alarmingly deep red. Like blood - it came to her mind. She returned to the hall to the guests. Her husband, Prince Vasily Lvovich Shein, at that time showed the guests an album with his drawings, accompanying him with a cheerful story about the ridiculous, as he called him, telegraph operator, who is madly in love with Vera, pursues her even after marriage, writes letters and, obviously, follows her her from afar. He knows everything about Vera - how she is dressed, where she has been and what she likes to do.

The husband and Nikolai, Vera’s brother, decided to find the obsessive and immodest admirer in order to return the bracelet. G.S.Zh. turned out to be a young man of 30-35 years old. He did not deny anything, fully admitting the indecency of his feelings and actions. Seeing understanding and sympathy in Prince Shein, he explained that he loved Vera so much that not a single deportation, not a single prison would kill his feeling. Only his death can save both himself and Vera from this feeling of love. He admitted that he had squandered government money and would now have to flee the city, so they would not hear from him again.

The next day, Vera read about the suicide of G. S. Zheltkov, an official of the control chamber. That evening she received a farewell letter. The unfortunate man wrote: his whole life was in Vera Nikolaevna. God rewarded him with this love for something. Leaving forever, he repeats the words only as a prayer: Hallowed be Thy name. Maybe Vera will remember him - he wrote further - then let her play the D major movement from Beethoven’s “Appassionata”. He thanks her as the only joy that was in his unhappy existence.

Vera wanted to say goodbye to the strange admirer - now she knew his name and his address. The husband understood and did not mind. She saw the serene face of G.S.Zh., as if he was keeping some great secret known to him alone. The young woman put a large red rose on him and kissed him on the forehead. The love one dreams of has passed by. It was so obvious to her now. Her friend from college, Jenny, was waiting for her at home. When Vera asked her to play something, she played the D major movement of Beethoven’s sonata. Vera cried and whispered, “Hallowed be thy name.” “He forgave me,” she answered her surprised friend. Everything is fine.

Essays

Year of writing: 1910

Genre of the work: story

Main characters: Vera Nikolaevna Sheina- princess, Vasily Lvovich- her husband, Georgy Stepanovich Zheltkov- official, Nikolai Nikolaevich- brother of the princess

Plot

At the dacha, Princess Vera celebrated her name day. She and her husband were barely making ends meet. At the height of the holiday, they brought in a gift for the birthday girl - a garnet bracelet with a stone. And a note from a fan who gave grandma’s jewelry. Vera decides not to accept the gift. The husband and brother decided to find the giver. It turned out to be the official Zheltkov. The gift was given, and Georgy Stepanovich asked to write a last letter to the princess because he was leaving. The prince did not mind, because love cannot be controlled. In the morning it turned out that the official had shot himself. Vera went to say goodbye to him. She fulfilled the fan’s request - she asked a friend to play a Beethoven sonata. Then she felt that the deceased had forgiven her.

Conclusion (my opinion)

Love comes involuntarily, so you can’t blame it for it. The official's feeling was like a bracelet. Precious and unique. He loved the princess to death.

“Garnet Bracelet” is a work written by A.I. Kuprin in 1910. The story is based on an incident that actually happened in life, but slightly changed by the author himself. Let us turn to the main ideas of the work “Garnet Bracelet” in order to briefly understand the essence of the work: The tragedy of the image “ little man"in the realities of life; Nothing can be stronger than love, not even death; The opposition of the nobility to the “lower class”, the conflict arising in connection with this. “Interclass barriers” force people to act not according to the dictates of their hearts, but guided solely by their minds.

Garnet bracelet summary

The epigraph to the story is the second movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's famous sonata Largo appassionato. It runs like a connecting thread through Kuprin’s entire work, filling the work with musicality and lyrical mood. Chapters. Summary Kuprin garnet bracelet.

Chapter l

There is talk of bad weather since mid-August, so typical of the Black Sea coast; The story is about the local inhabitants moving to the city; The improvement in the weather at the beginning of September pleases Vera Nikolaevna Sheina, who, due to the fact that renovations in her city apartment with her husband (Vera’s husband is the leader of the nobility) were not completed, could not leave the dacha.

Chapter II

September 17 is Vera Nikolaevna’s birthday, a day from which she always expected something “joyful and wonderful.” Not many friends were supposed to gather at the birthday party, since, in many ways, her husband’s situation was sad: forced to live beyond his means, but according to his status, he “barely made ends meet.” Vera tried to help her husband, unnoticed by him, denying herself many things, even saving on household chores. For Vera, her “passionate love for her husband has long turned into a feeling of lasting, faithful, true friendship.”

Vera was glad to see the arrival of her sister Anna Nikolaevna, with whom she outwardly had little in common. Vera took after her mother and was a tall and slender woman with lovely sloping shoulders and a cold, somewhat arrogant face, while Anna, the heiress of her father’s “Mongolian blood,” was short in stature, but very active and lively, although She did not have the attractiveness of her sister, but she beat her due to her femininity and frivolity. Anna had two children from a person she did not love: a girl and a boy, whom Vera loved passionately. She did not have her own children, but dreamed that she would have them.

Chapter lll

The sisters, who have not seen each other for a long time, decide to sit on the cliff for a while. They talk about the sea; Anna gives her sister a ladies' cornet made from a prayer book. Vera really liked her sister’s gift; Reasoning about the birthday, about who will arrive and what will happen at the holiday.

Chapter lV

Soon guests arrive: Vera’s husband, Vasily Lvovich and Lyudmila Lvovna, his sister. Also this is the “rogue” Vasyuchok,” Vera’s brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, Gustav Ivanovich, Anna’s husband, Jenny Reiter, Vera’s friend, and also Professor Speshnikov, Vice-Governor von Zeck, General Anosov, and with him two officers - Bakhtinsky and Ponomarev; An important guest is General Anosov, who was a very close person to the sisters, he was even Vera’s godfather. Anna and Vera loved him very much, they were upset when he did not visit them for a long time. He lived a glorious life, went through several wars, he was a brave man, whom everyone respected and revered.

Chapter V

Dinner went on as usual, everything was great and truly festive. The main entertainment of the evening were the stories of Vasily Lvovich, in which he talked about someone in an exaggerated and grotesque form. Although he took it as a basis from a real life incident. He spoke about cases related to Nikol Nikolaevich Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky and Gustav Ivanovich Friesse. The sisters, as passionate lovers of gambling, organized a kind of card “games” that evening.

And this evening was no exception. The maid informs Vera Nikolaevna about a gift that was handed over to an unknown person through a courier. This gift was a garnet bracelet. Attached to it was a note saying that this bracelet, which belonged to the stranger’s great-grandmother, was nothing more than a gift. And her admirer asks her to accept this gift, since the bracelet endows “everyone who wears it” with the gift of foresight, and protects men from violent death. Vera momentarily compared the beads to blood clots. “It’s like blood,” she said. The letter ended with the words: “Your humble servant G.S.Zh. before death and after death.”

Chapter Vl

Continuation of the evening. Colonel Ponomarev, who has never played poker, ends up winning, although he did not want to start the game; Vasily Lvovich captures the attention of most guests with the help of his “humorous album”, in which many guests are shown in a comic form. The last drawing turns out to be “Princess Vera and the telegraph operator in love.” This story tells how Vera received letters from a “secret admirer”; The story ends sadly: dying, the lover bequeaths “two telegraph buttons and a perfume bottle - filled with his tears.”

Chapter Vll

General Anosov, sitting on the terrace, tells his sisters stories from his life; The general says that he “must not have loved” for real; Afterwards, General Anosov, reluctantly, begins to say goodbye. Vera, like Anna, expresses a desire to accompany him; Vera tells her husband to look “at the gift.”

Chapter Vlll

On the way, General Anosov and Vera started talking about “true love” and the fact that both men and women are not often capable of true, sacrificial love; The general gives examples of two stories when he met true love; Vera talks about her admirer. Aonsov notes that perhaps Vera’s life “was crossed by true and selfless love.”

Chapter lX

Discussion of the note and gift by Vasily Lvovich and Nikolai Nikolaevich, who is quite categorical. Nikolai does not even think about compromise; They decide to find Vera’s mysterious admirer the next day in order to once and for all prohibit him from disturbing Vasily Lvovich’s wife and return the gift.

Chapter X

Vasily Lvovich and Nikolai Nikolaevich visit Mr. Zheltkov in his rented apartment; They saw a man who looked to be 30-35 years old, with a “gentle, girlish face” and blond hair; Twice unsuccessfully inviting Shein and Mirza-Bulat-Turganovsky to sit down, Zheltkov listened to who came to his apartment and for what purpose; Nikolai, asking not to disturb his wife anymore, gave Zheltkov a gift. Zheltkov agreed to leave Vera Nikolaevna, but on the condition that Vasily would listen to him. Having explained to Vasily Lvovich that his wife is the meaning of his life, he asked permission to call Vera Nikolaevna; After this, Zheltkov promised that “you will never hear from me again and, of course, you will never see me again”; Vera has a presentiment of Zheltkov's death.

Chapter Xl

Vera, who did not like to read newspapers, discovers in one of them a note about the death of Zheltkov, who shot himself in his apartment, allegedly because of debts; Vera reads the letter that Zheltkov wrote to her before his death. In the letter, he asks for forgiveness for “being a hindrance to her”; Vera, with her husband’s permission, is going to visit Zheltkov.

Chapter Xll

She, with the permission of the mistress of the house, a Catholic by birth, visits Zheltkov, whom she kissed on the forehead, realizing that this is what Anosov was talking about: it was true love that touched her, but passed by; When Vera was about to leave, the hostess handed her a note in which Zheltkov once again mentioned Beethoven’s Sonata No. 2, which he had spoken about in the letter; Vera, unable to contain herself, burst into tears.

Chapter Xlll

Finding Jenny Reiter at home, Vera asked her to play something for her; Confident that she would play exactly the right sonata, Vera was not surprised when Jenny played music in which she heard words of reassurance, words of forgiveness; Vera felt better, as she realized that Zheltkov, even after his death, wished her only a happy life, a life filled with many bright and joyful days.