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Updated: June 6, 2025
If not, tell me whom you're going to call upon." "Upon Sobakevitch." Instantly Nozdrev burst into a laugh compassable only by a healthy man in whose head every tooth still remains as white as sugar. By this I mean the laugh of quivering cheeks, the laugh which causes a neighbour who is sleeping behind double doors three rooms away to leap from his bed and exclaim with distended eyes, "Hullo!
Even before the soup had been served, he had poured out for each guest a bumper of port and another of "haut" sauterne. After this bottle Nozdrev called for another and "a very special" brand a brand which he declared to consist of a blend of burgundy and champagne, and of which he poured generous measures into the glasses of Chichikov and the brother-in-law as they sat to right and left of him.
"What am I to say to the fellow?" thought Chichikov. He reflected for a moment, and then explained that he wanted the dead souls in order to acquire a better standing in society, since at present he possessed little landed property, and only a handful of serfs. "You are lying," said Nozdrev without even letting him finish. "Yes, you are lying my good friend."
"Kindly tell ME whom I have the honour of addressing?" retorted Nozdrev as he approached the official. "I am the Superintendent of Rural Police." "And what do you want?" "I have come to fulfil a commission imposed upon me. That is to say, I have come to place you under arrest until your case shall have been decided." "Rubbish! What case, pray?"
At supper, too, matters felt uncomfortable, even though the society at Chichikov's table was exceedingly agreeable and Nozdrev had been removed, owing to the fact that the ladies had found his conduct too scandalous to be borne, now that the delinquent had taken to seating himself on the floor and plucking at the skirts of passing lady dancers.
Of cheating you?" "I am not supposing you capable of anything. All that I say is that I will not play with you any more." "But you can't refuse to," said Nozdrev, growing heated. "You see, the game has begun." "Nevertheless, I have a right not to continue it, seeing that you are not playing as an honest man should do." "You are lying you cannot truthfully say that." "'Tis you who are lying."
"And in exchange, you shall have the britchka, the barrel-organ, and the dead souls," repeated Nozdrev. "I must decline the offer," said Chichikov. "And why?" "Because I don't WANT the things I am full up already." "I can see that you don't know how things should be done between good friends and comrades. Plainly you are a man of two faces." "What do you mean, you fool? Think for yourself.
"I tell you what," said Nozdrev, pressing the sides of the pack together, and then slightly bending them, so that the pack cracked and a card flew out. "How would it be if, to pass the time, I were to make a bank of three hundred?"
Something HAS upset him!" "What is there to laugh at?" asked Chichikov, a trifle nettled; but Nozdrev laughed more unrestrainedly than ever, ejaculating: "Oh, spare us all! The thing is so amusing that I shall die of it!" "I say that there is nothing to laugh at," repeated Chichikov. "It is in fulfilment of a promise that I am on my way to Sobakevitch's."
Indeed, so audible was the sound of his voice as he ordered dinner that Chichikov who was beginning to feel hungry once more was enabled to gather that it would be at least five o'clock before a meal of any kind would be available. On his return, Nozdrev invited his companions to inspect his establishment even though as early as two o'clock he had to announce that nothing more was to be seen.
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