Heart of a Dog Read Online Free PDF

own apartment and threatening to evict me.'
        'Hey, now, professor . . .' began Shvonder, his expression changing.
        'Excuse me ... I can't repeat all they've been saying. I can't make sense of it, anyway. Roughly speaking they have told me to give up my consulting-room, which will oblige me to operate in the room I have used until now for dissecting rabbits. I not only cannot work under such conditions - I have no right to. So I am closing down my practice, shutting up my apartment and going to Sochi. I will give the keys to Shvonder. He can operate for me.'
        The four stood rigid. The snow was melting on their boots. 'Can't be helped, I'm afraid . . . Of course I'm very upset, but ... What? Oh, no, Pyotr Alexandrovich! Oh, no. That I must flatly refuse. My patience has snapped. This is the second time since August . . . What? H'm . . . All right, if you like. I suppose so. Only this time on one condition: I don't care who issues it, when they issue it or what they issue, provided it's the sort of certificate which will mean that neither Shvonder nor anyone else can so much as knock on my door. The ultimate in certificates. Effective. Real. Armour-plated! I don't even want my name on it. The end. As far as they are concerned, I am dead. Yes, yes. Please do. Who? Aha . . . well, that's another matter. Aha . . . good. I'll just hand him the receiver. Would you mind,' Philip Philipovich spoke to Shvonder in a voice like a snake's, 'you're wanted on the telephone.'
        'But, professor,' said Shvonder, alternately flaring up and cringing, 'what you've told him is all wrong' -
        'Please don't speak to me like that.'
        Shvonder nervously picked up the receiver and said:
        'Hello. Yes ... I'm the chairman of the house management committee . . . We were only acting according to the regulations . . . the professor is an absolutely special case . . . Yes, we know about his work . . . We were going to leave him five whole rooms . . . Well, OK ... if that's how it is ... OK.'
        Very red in the face, he hung up and turned round.
        What a fellow! thought the dog rapturously. Does he know how to handle them! What's his
    secret, I wonder? He can beat me as much as he likes now - I'm not leaving this place!'
        The three young people stared open-mouthed at the wretched Shvonder.
        'This is a disgrace!' he said miserably.
        'If that Pyotr Alexandrovich had been here,' began the woman, reddening with anger, 'I'd have shown him . . .'
        'Excuse me, would you like to talk to him now?' enquired Philip Philipovich politely.
        The woman's eyes flashed.
        'You can be as sarcastic as you like, professor, but we're going now . . . Still, as manager of the cultural department of this house . . .'
        ' Manager,' Philip Philipovich corrected her.
        'I want to ask you' - here the woman pulled a number of coloured magazines wet with snow, from out of the front of her tunic - 'to buy a few of these magazines in aid of the children of Germany. 50 kopecks a copy.'
        'No, I will not,' said Philip Philipovich curtly after a glance at the magazines.
        Total amazement showed on the faces, and the girl turned cranberry-colour.
        'Why not?'
        'I don't want to.'
        'Don't you feel sorry for the children of Germany?'
        'Yes, I do.'
        'Can't you spare 50 kopecks?'
        'Yes, I can.'
        'Well, why won't you, then?'
        'I don't want to.'
        Silence.
        'You know, professor,' said the girl with a deep sigh, 'if you weren't world-famous and if you weren't being protected by certain people in the most disgusting way,' (the fair youth tugged at the hem of her jerkin, but she brushed him away), 'which we propose to investigate, you should be arrested.'
        'What for?' asked Philip Philipovich with curiosity.
        'Because you hate the proletariat!' said the woman