THE STEEL FLEA
Platoff said: "Here now, you thus-and-so, go yourself and make answer before the eyes of the Emperor."
And the left-handed man replied: "Assuredly I will go and will make answer."
So he goes, just as he is, in his voluminous trousers, one leg tucked into his boot, the other flapping unrestrainedly, and his old kaftan, whose hooks would not fasten because they were lost, and which had a rent on the stomach; but he took no heed of this—he felt no confusion.
"What of it?" he said to himself. "If it pleases the Emperor to see me, I must go; and if I have no tugament with me, I am not to blame, and I will tell how the matter came about."
When the left-handed man entered and made his obeisance, the Emperor immediately said to him: "What is the meaning of this, my good man, that
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