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The material met with the customer's approval, a price was agreed upon, and with incredible celerity the vendor made up the purchase into a brown-paper parcel, and stowed it away in Chichikov's koliaska. At this moment a voice asked to be shown a black frockcoat. "The devil take me if it isn't Khlobuev!" muttered our hero, turning his back upon the newcomer. Unfortunately the other had seen him.
"Just arrived, you are going already?" "Yes; I cannot help it; urgent business requires me at home." And entering his gig, Kostanzhoglo drove rapidly away. Somehow Khlobuev seemed to divine the cause of his sudden departure. "It was too much for him," he remarked. "An agriculturist of that kind does not like to have to look upon the results of such feckless management as mine.
And even as Khlobuev spoke he felt renewed vigour and confidence arise in his soul, and his mind begin to awake to a sense of hopefulness of eventually being able to put to flight his troubles. And even as it was, the world seemed to be growing dim to his eyes....
"An extraordinary man!" was Platon's unspoken comment. "However, we must contrive to wet our bargain somehow," continued Khlobuev. "Hi, Kirushka! Bring that bottle of champagne." "Nothing to eat, yet champagne to drink!" reflected Chichikov. As for Platon, he did not know WHAT to think.
"Personally I find it impossible to compassionate such fellows." And with that the pair ceased to devote another thought to Khlobuev.
Finish your business with Khlobuev without me, and whatsoever you do, get this treasure out of that fool's hands as quickly as possible, for he is dishonouring God's gifts." And Kostanzhoglo, his face dark with the rage that was seething in his excitable soul, left Chichikov, and caught up the owner of the establishment. "What, Constantine Thedorovitch?" cried Khlobuev in astonishment.
"And what may her family name be?" asked Chichikov. "And where does she live?" "She lives in the county town, and her name is Alexandra Ivanovna Khanasarov." "Then why do you not apply to her?" asked Platon earnestly. "It seems to me that, once she realised the position of your family, she could not possibly refuse you." "Alas! nothing is to be looked for from that quarter," replied Khlobuev.
Accordingly, before many minutes were over he had ceased to bestow a single thought upon his late host. With Chichikov, however, things were different. Whereas Platon had ceased to think of Khlobuev no more than he had ceased to think of himself, Chichikov's mind had strayed elsewhere, for the reason that it had become taken up with grave meditation on the subject of the purchase just made.
To those who have spent their youth in dissipation such havens say what the ant said to the dragonfly namely, 'Go you away, and return to your dancing. Yes, even in a monastery do folk toil and toil they do not sit playing whist." Murazov looked at Khlobuev, and added: "Semen Semenovitch, you are deceiving both yourself and me."
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