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When supper was over Nozdrev said to Chichikov as he conducted him to a side room where a bed had been made up: "This is where you are to sleep. I cannot very well wish you good-night." Left to himself on Nozdrev's departure, Chichikov felt in a most unenviable frame of mind.
Nozdrev's face will be familiar to the reader, seeing that every one must have encountered many such. Yet, while cementing such friendships for all eternity, almost always they begin quarrelling the same evening, since, throughout, they are a loquacious, dissipated, high-spirited, over-showy tribe.
So strange and novel seemed the idea that the company stood with faces expressive of nothing but a dumb, dull wonder. That Nozdrev was a notorious liar every one, of course, knew, and that he should have given vent to an idiotic outburst of this sort had surprised no one; but a dead soul well, what was one to make of Nozdrev's reference to such a commodity?
The meal over, and the whole tale of wines tried, the guests still retained their seats a circumstance which embarrassed Chichikov, seeing that he had no mind to propound his pet scheme in the presence of Nozdrev's brother-in-law, who was a complete stranger to him. No, that subject called for amicable and PRIVATE conversation.
The golden hair, the fine-drawn, delicate contours, the face with its bewitching oval a face which might have served as a model for the countenance of the Madonna, since it was of a type rarely to be met with in Russia, where nearly everything, from plains to human feet, is, rather, on the gigantic scale; these features, I say, were those of the identical maiden whom Chichikov had encountered on the road when he had been fleeing from Nozdrev's.
"Shall I, or shall I not, go to Nozdrev's?" reflected Chichikov. "Is he likely to prove any more useful than the rest? Well, at least he is as promising, even though he has lost so much at play. But he has a head on his shoulders, and therefore I must go carefully if I am to tackle him concerning my scheme."
'Just you see, said I to him, 'if we do not fall in with Chichikov before we have done. Heavens, how completely cleaned out I am! Not only have I lost four good horses, but also my watch and chain." Chichikov perceived that in very truth his interlocutor was minus the articles named, as well as that one of Nozdrev's whiskers was less bushy in appearance than the other one.
Behind them came Nozdrev's smaller buggy, with its team of lean stage horses and Porphyri and the puppy. But inasmuch as the conversation which the travellers maintained was not of a kind likely to interest the reader, I might do worse than say something concerning Nozdrev himself, seeing that he is destined to play no small role in our story.
In short, Nozdrev's whole lineage was passed in review; and many of its members in the ascending line fared badly in the process. Meanwhile, at the other end of the town there was in progress an event which was destined to augment still further the unpleasantness of our hero's position.
Yet although he did the same to the Chief of Police and the Public Prosecutor, the company had no sooner seated themselves at the card-table than both the one and the other of these functionaries started to keep a careful eye upon Nozdrev's tricks, and to watch practically every card which he played.
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