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Consequently you must spend the night here, and depart to-morrow morning after breakfast." What could be done with a man like Pietukh? There was no help for it but to remain.
I must hurry my departure." Aloud he said with an air of sympathy: "That you have mortgaged the estate seems to me a matter of regret." "No, not at all," replied Pietukh. "In fact, they tell me that it is a good thing to do, and that every one else is doing it. Why should I act differently from my neighbours?
Nevertheless he heard through the blankets: "And garnish the sturgeon with beetroot, smelts, peppered mushrooms, young radishes, carrots, beans, and anything else you like, so as to have plenty of trimmings. Yes, and put a lump of ice into the pig's bladder, so as to swell it up." Many other dishes did Pietukh order, and nothing was to be heard but his talk of boiling, roasting, and stewing.
They have set up 'offices' and factories and schools and 'commissions, and the devil knows what else besides. A fine lot of wiseacres! After the French War in 1812 they had to reconstruct their affairs: and see how they have done it! Yet so much worse have they done it than a Frenchman would have done that any fool of a Peter Petrovitch Pietukh now ranks as a good landowner!"
"Let me guess what is in your mind," said Pietukh. "What, then?" asked Chichikov, rather taken aback. "You are thinking to yourself: 'That fool of a Pietukh has asked me to dinner, yet not a bite of dinner do I see. But wait a little. It will be ready presently, for it is being cooked as fast as a maiden who has had her hair cut off plaits herself a new set of tresses."
It is to my house, not to his, that you have come; and I am Peter Petrovitch Pietukh yes, Peter Petrovitch Pietukh." Chichikov, dumbfounded, turned to Selifan and Petrushka. "What do you mean?" he exclaimed. "I told you to drive to the house of Colonel Koshkarev, whereas you have brought me to that of Peter Petrovitch Pietukh."
And, taking Chichikov by the arm, the host conducted him within, where they were met by a couple of youths. "Let me introduce my two sons, home for their holidays from the Gymnasium ," said Pietukh. "Nikolasha, come and entertain our good visitor, while you, Aleksasha, follow me." And with that the host disappeared.
For that matter, Pietukh might well have been ruined already, for hospitality can dissipate a fortune in three months as easily as it can in three years. The host also dispensed the wine with a lavish hand, and what the guests did not drink he gave to his sons, who thus swallowed glass after glass.
And Pietukh, too, would give himself a shake, and help lustily to support the chorus; and even Chichikov felt acutely conscious of the fact that he was a Russian. Only Platon reflected: "What is there so splendid in these melancholy songs? They do but increase one's depression of spirits." The journey homeward was made in the gathering dusk.
Lastly, should any one take four pieces, he would cap them with a fifth, and add thereto the punning quip, "Na piat opiat ". After devouring at least twelve steaks of sturgeon, Chichikov ventured to think to himself, "My host cannot possibly add to THEM," but found that he was mistaken, for, without a word, Pietukh heaped upon his plate an enormous portion of spit-roasted veal, and also some kidneys.
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