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Updated: May 8, 2025
Accordingly Petrushka proceeded to restore the coat and trousers to their appointed places, and then descended the stairs; whereafter he and Selifan left the house together. Not a word passed between them as to the object of their expedition. On the contrary, they talked solely of extraneous subjects.
As he proceeded he whistled, hummed with hand placed trumpetwise to his mouth, and ended by bursting into a burst of melody so striking that Selifan, after listening for a while, nodded his head and exclaimed, "My word, but the master CAN sing!" By the time they reached the town darkness had fallen, and changed the character of the scene.
But away with such things! Why need we speak of them? "Here is the britchka, here is the britchka!" exclaimed Chichikov on perceiving that vehicle slowly advancing. "Ah, you blockhead!" he went on to Selifan. "Why have you been loitering about? I suppose last night's fumes have not yet left your brain?" To this Selifan returned no reply. "Good-bye, madam," added the speaker.
Selifan also roused himself, and apportioned to the skewbald a few cuts across the back of a kind which at least had the effect of inciting that animal to trot; and when, presently, the other two horses followed their companion's example, the light britchka moved forwards like a piece of thistledown.
Whether or not Petrushka was glad to see the barin return it is impossible to say, but at all events he exchanged a wink with Selifan, and his ordinarily morose exterior seemed momentarily to brighten. "Then you have been travelling far, sir?" said the waiter, as he lit the way upstarts. "Yes," said Chichikov. "What has happened here in the meanwhile?"
So he dispatched Selifan to search for the entrance gates, and that process would have lasted indefinitely had it not been shortened by the circumstance that, in Russia, the place of a Swiss footman is frequently taken by watchdogs; of which animals a number now proclaimed the travellers' presence so loudly that Chichikov found himself forced to stop his ears.
If that should not be done, I, I I will give you the best flogging that ever you had in your life." Truly Chichikov was almost beside himself with fury. Turning towards the door, as though for the purpose of going and carrying out his orders, Selifan halted and added: "That skewbald, barin you might think it well to sell him, seeing that he is nothing but a rascal?
True, at home the skewbald got none but the poorer sorts of oats to eat, and Selifan never filled his trough without having first called him a villain; but at least they WERE oats, and not hay they were stuff which could be chewed with a certain amount of relish. But at Nozdrev's there had been nothing but hay! That was not right. All three horses felt greatly discontented.
Eventually he lay down on his face, with his legs trailing over the floor; after which Selifan also stretched himself upon the pallet, with his head resting upon Petrushka's stomach, and his mind wholly oblivious of the fact that he ought not to have been sleeping there at all, but in the servant's quarters, or in the stable beside his horses.
Here Platon set himself to give Selifan some directions as to the way, a necessary proceeding in view of the fact that Selifan could hardly maintain his seat on the box. Twice Petrushka, too, had fallen headlong, and this necessitated being tied to his perch with a piece of rope. "What a clown!" had been Chichikov's only comment. "This is where my brother-in-law's land begins," said Platon.
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