Vasily Nikitich Chalikov

A ruined provincial secretary, long out of a position, living with his pregnant wife and five young daughters in a foul-smelling flat in Gushchin's tenement building. A bony, narrow-shouldered man with small deep-set eyes and a birdlike nose, he greets Anna Akimovna's charity visit with theatrical, self-abasing gratitude -- kissing her hand, invoking his children's suffering, and flattering her while ostentatiously debasing his own "gentility" -- behavior Anna Akimovna finds repellent as playacting learned from dealing with merchants. He rents a room to the factory worker Pimenov. He returns to Anna Akimovna's house twice more that day seeking further money, drunk each time, and is turned away; by the story's end she reflects bitterly that he is the one person who will go on pursuing her, reminding her daily how absurd her life is.