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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: please. You must fork out five hundred roubles if you die for it.
Why, I ask, have you made such a rule? Do you want to raise the
prestige of educated Russians thereby? Not a bit of it. We don't
let you go third-class simply because a decent person can't go
third-class; it is very horrible and disgusting. Yes, indeed. I
am very grateful for such solicitude for decent people's welfare.
But in any case, whether it is nasty there or nice, five hundred
roubles I haven't got. I haven't pilfered government money. I
haven't exploited the natives, I haven't trafficked in
contraband, I have flogged no one to death, so judge whether I
have the right to travel first-class and even less to reckon
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