Book Description

Excerpt from The Ace of Clubs The drizzling rain that had continued several hours increased the darkness which in late autumn evenings covers St. Petersburg as with a pall. The gas lamps had not yet been lighted in the streets and on the square adjoining the Blue Bridge the semicircle of lamps was still dark; only here and there a faint ray of light came through the show windows of the large stores on the wharf which were always lighted early. The long passages in the Ministry of the Interior were deserted. Here and there a lamp suspended from the smoke-blackened and vaulted ceiling gave a little light and much bad smell. On a dirty bench, carved by awkward, idle hands, a humble official snored aloud. It might be 8 o'clock. The offices on either side of the passages, resembling cells, were almost all closed. Only now and then a ray of light pierced the keyhole and showed a belated occupant. At one place, where the passage was wider, another bench contained a second watchman, an old soldier, who was asleep. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.