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Next day Chichikov dined and spent the evening at the house of the Chief of Police a residence where, three hours after dinner, every one sat down to whist, and remained so seated until two o'clock in the morning.
"Good morning, dear sir," she responded as she rose. "How have you slept?" She was dressed in better style than she had been on the previous evening. That is to say, she was now wearing a gown of some dark colour, and lacked her nightcap, and had swathed her neck in something stiff. "I have slept exceedingly well," replied Chichikov, seating himself upon a chair. "And how are YOU, good madam?"
During his travels it had befallen him to meet various types of men some of them, it may be, types which you and I have never encountered; but even to Chichikov this particular species was new.
"No, I never smoke," answered Chichikov civilly, and with an assumed air of regret. "And why?" inquired Manilov equally civilly, but with a regret that was wholly genuine. "Because I fear that I have never quite formed the habit, owing to my having heard that a pipe exercises a desiccating effect upon the system." "Then allow me to tell you that that is mere prejudice.
Meanwhile, Chichikov, seated in his britchka and bowling along the turnpike, was feeling greatly pleased with himself. From the preceding chapter the reader will have gathered the principal subject of his bent and inclinations: wherefore it is no matter for wonder that his body and his soul had ended by becoming wholly immersed therein.
By this time Chichikov felt that he had seen enough; wherefore he returned to the Colonel, and informed him that the Office for the Reception of Reports and Returns had ceased to exist. At once the Colonel flamed to noble rage.
"I say again that it is a long time since last I had a chessman in my hand." And Chichikov, in his turn, moved. "Ah! I know you and your poor play," repeated Nozdrev, for the third time as he made a third move. At the same moment the cuff of one of his sleeves happened to dislodge another chessman from its position.
Chichikov stood rooted to the spot, like a man who, after issuing into the street for a pleasant walk, has suddenly come to a halt on remembering that something has been left behind him. In a moment, as he struggles to recall what that something is, the mien of careless expectancy disappears from his face, and he no longer sees a single person or a single object in his vicinity.
But now Chichikov perceived this person to be a man rather than a woman, since a female housekeeper would have had no beard to shave, whereas the chin of the newcomer, with the lower portion of his cheeks, strongly resembled the curry-comb which is used for grooming horses. Chichikov assumed a questioning air, and waited to hear what the housekeeper might have to say. The housekeeper did the same.
Soon Chichikov began to feel weary, for the terrain was so low-lying that in many spots water could be heard squelching underfoot, and though for a while the visitors watched their feet, and stepped carefully, they soon perceived that such a course availed them nothing, and took to following their noses, without either selecting or avoiding the spots where the mire happened to be deeper or the reverse.
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