From the point of view of presentation the text is the 1^st person narrative, which is more subjective: “I was then shown to my room.”; “I was to see my old friend…”; “I looked at him closely, trying to discover in that broad face the features I held so dear.” The direct speech presented in the form of dialogues is numerous: "Are they yours?" "Of course they are," he replied, laughing. "How many have you?" "Five! There are three more at home."

In terms of the contextual type, the text is written mostly as narration with the elements of description (“Yet his eyes were bright, full of happiness and friendship, but they had not that clear, intelligent expression which shows as much as words the brightness of the intellect.”; “a garden that was an imitation of a park, and stopped in front of a turreted house, which tried to look like a chateau.”); dialogues ("This is a friend of Simon's, papa." The old gentleman tried to say "good-day" to me, and he muttered: "Oua, oua, oua," and waved his hand, and I took a seat saying: "You are very kind, monsieur."); meditations (“No doubt the bird was singing in a low voice during the night, to lull his mate, who was asleep on her eggs. And I thought of my poor friend's five children, and pictured him to myself, snoring by the side of his ugly wife.”). Narration informs the reader of a sequence of events and is rather dynamic: the narrator travels in the train, gets off and meets his friend, together they drive to the house, where the narrator is introduced to the family, than comes the dinner, when the family mocks at the grandpa, than the narrator meditates about the human values.

From the point of view of its compositional structure the story consists of the following parts: exposition, where the main characters and the setting are introduced (“I was to see my old friend, Simon Radevin, of whom I had lost sight for fifteen years.”); development of events (the meeting of two old friends, their trip in the carriage, the acquaintance with the Radevins, the dinner); the climax, the sharpest moment in the story, when the family members mock at the grandpa and the narrator is stunned and astonished at the fact; the denouement, when Simon explains that the grandpa can’t be given more food because of his health condition; the conclusion, when the narrator meditates about values of life.