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Updated: May 12, 2025
By this time Chichikov was floundering badly. Mentally he spat upon himself and reflected: "Gracious heavens! What rubbish I am talking!" "Pardon me," went on his interlocutor, "but I do not quite understand you. Is Tientietnikov producing a history of a given period, or only a history made up of a series of biographies?
For that matter, Chichikov himself had noticed that Tientietnikov was in the habit of drawing heads of which each representation exactly resembled the rest. Once, as he sat tapping his silver snuff-box after luncheon, Chichikov remarked: "One thing you lack, and only one, Andrei Ivanovitch." "What is that?" asked his host. "A female friend or two," replied Chichikov.
From this the reader will see that Andrei Ivanovitch Tientietnikov belonged to that band of sluggards whom we always have with us, and who, whatever be their present appellation, used to be known by the nicknames of "lollopers," "bed pressers," and "marmots." Whether the type is a type originating at birth, or a type resulting from untoward circumstances in later life, it is impossible to say.
"A curious fellow, this Tientietnikov!" thought Chichikov to himself. "A curious fellow, this Chichikov!" was Tientietnikov's inward reflection. "I tell you what," resumed Chichikov. "To-morrow I myself will go and see the General." "To what purpose?" asked Tientietnikov, with astonishment and distrust in his eyes. "To offer him an assurance of my personal respect."
Tientietnikov in no way regretted this, for he could now devote himself wholly to the projection of a great work on Russia. Of the scale on which this composition was conceived the reader is already aware. The reader also knows how strange, how unsystematic, was the system employed in it. Yet to say that Tientietnikov never awoke from his lethargy would not be altogether true.
Tientietnikov made no rejoinder, and the conversation came temporarily to an end. But Chichikov was not to be discouraged; wherefore, while waiting for supper and talking on different subjects, he seized an opportunity to interject: "Do you know, it would do you no harm to marry." As before, Tientietnikov did not reply, and the renewed mention of the subject seemed to have annoyed him.
From them he learnt several things, and, in particular, that the barin had been wont to go and call upon a certain General in the neighbourhood, and that the General possessed a daughter, and that she and Tientietnikov had had an affair of some sort, but that the pair had subsequently parted, and gone their several ways.
Nevertheless these two associates exercised upon Tientietnikov both by the fire of their eloquence and by the form of their noble dissatisfaction with society a very strong influence; with the result that, through arousing in him an innate tendency to nervous resentment, they led him also to notice trifles which before had escaped his attention.
During the initial days of Chichikov's sojourn, Tientietnikov feared rather to lose his independence, inasmuch as he thought that his guest might hamper his movements, and bring about alterations in the established routine of the place. But these fears proved groundless, for Paul Ivanovitch displayed an extraordinary aptitude for accommodating himself to his new position.
At first the General used to receive him with hospitable civility, but permanent concord between them proved impossible; their conversation always merged into dissension and soreness, seeing that, while the General could not bear to be contradicted or worsted in an argument, Tientietnikov was a man of extreme sensitiveness.
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