Three young men and a busy street

Later, three young men want a ride: two tall and thin, and one small with a hump. They offer only twenty kopeks, a very low fare. Iona accepts: any fare will do now.

On the way, the young men quarrel, swear, and boast about how much they drank the night before. The humpback even hits Iona on the neck to make him go faster. Yet Iona laughs. Being among people, even rude ones, eases his loneliness for a while.

When he manages to say that his son died, the humpback simply says that everybody dies, and tells him to go faster.

When they get out, Iona is alone again, and his grief comes back, even stronger than before. He searches the crowds in the street for anyone who might listen to him, but nobody notices him.

He tries a hall porter, who only tells him the time and orders him to move on.

Iona's grief is enormous, Chekhov suggests, large enough to flood the whole world; yet it is hidden inside a small, poor man whom nobody looks at.