Dead Souls (English Edition). Nikolai Gogol

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Dead Souls (English Edition) - Nikolai Gogol


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The night is dark and cold,” added Selifan.

      “Hold your tongue, you fool!” exclaimed Chichikov.

      “Who ARE you, then?” inquired the old woman.

      Somehow the word dvorianin seemed to give the old woman food for thought.

      “Wait a moment,” she said, “and I will tell the mistress.”

      Chichikov apologised for having disturbed the household with his unexpected arrival.

      “Not at all, not at all,” replied the lady. “But in what dreadful weather God has brought you hither! What wind and what rain! You could not help losing your way. Pray excuse us for being unable to make better preparations for you at this time of night.”

      Suddenly there broke in upon the hostess’ words the sound of a strange hissing, a sound so loud that the guest started in alarm, and the more so seeing that it increased until the room seemed filled with adders. On glancing upwards, however, he recovered his composure, for he perceived the sound to be emanating from the clock, which appeared to be in a mind to strike. To the hissing sound there succeeded a wheezing one, until, putting forth its best efforts, the thing struck two with as much clatter as though some one had been hitting an iron pot with a cudgel. That done, the pendulum returned to its right-left, right-left oscillation.

      Chichikov thanked his hostess kindly, and said that he needed nothing, and she must not put herself about: only for rest was he longing — though also he should like to know whither he had arrived, and whether the distance to the country house of land-owner Sobakevitch was anything very great. To this the lady replied that she had never so much as heard the name, since no gentleman of the name resided in the locality.

      “But at least you are acquainted with landowner Manilov?” continued Chichikov.

      “No. Who is he?”

      “Another landed proprietor, madam.”

      “Well, neither have I heard of him. No such landowner lives hereabouts.”

      “Then who ARE your local landowners?”

      “Bobrov, Svinin, Kanapatiev, Khapakin, Trepakin, and Plieshakov.”

      “Are they rich men?”

      “No, none of them. One of them may own twenty souls, and another thirty, but of gentry who own a hundred there are none.”

      Chichikov reflected that he had indeed fallen into an aristocratic wilderness!

      “At all events, is the town far away?” he inquired.

      “About sixty versts. How sorry I am that I have nothing for you to eat! Should you care to drink some tea?”

      “I thank you, good mother, but I require nothing beyond a bed.”

      “Well, after such a journey you must indeed be needing rest, so you shall lie upon this sofa. Fetinia, bring a quilt and some pillows and sheets. What weather God has sent us! And what dreadful thunder! Ever since sunset I have had a candle burning before the ikon in my bedroom. My God! Why, your back and sides are as muddy as a boar’s! However have you managed to get into such a state?”

      “That I am nothing worse than muddy is indeed fortunate, since, but for the Almighty, I should have had my ribs broken.”

      “Dear, dear! To think of all that you must have been through. Had I not better wipe your back?”

      “I thank you, I thank you, but you need not trouble. Merely be so good as to tell your maid to dry my clothes.”

      “Do you hear that, Fetinia?” said the hostess, turning to a woman who was engaged in dragging in a feather bed and deluging the room with feathers. “Take this coat and this vest, and, after drying them before the fire — just as we used to do for your late master — give them a good rub, and fold them up neatly.”

      “Very well, mistress,” said Fetinia, spreading some sheets over the bed, and arranging the pillows.

      “Now your bed is ready for you,” said the hostess to Chichikov. “Good-night, dear sir. I wish you good-night. Is there anything else that you require? Perhaps you would like to have your heels tickled before retiring to rest? Never could my late husband get to sleep without that having been done.”


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