Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/131

Rh 'But what do I want with a hurdy-gurdy? I am not a German to go trudging about the roads with it, begging.'

'But this isn't the sort of barrel-organ Germans go about with, you know. It's an organ; take a good look at it; it's all mahogany. I'll show it to you again!' At this point Nozdryov seizing Tchitchikov by the arm dragged him into the adjoining room and, though he held his ground firmly and declared that he knew what the barrel-organ was like, he had to hear how Marlborough went to war once more.

'If you don't want to buy it, I tell you, I'll give you the barrel-organ and all the dead souls I have got, and you give me your chaise and three hundred roubles thrown in.'

'What next! What should I do for a carriage?'

'I'd give you another chaise. Come along to the coach-house, I'll show it you! You have only to give it a coat of paint and it will be a capital chaise.'

'Ough, the devil is egging him on!' Tchitchikov thought to himself, and he made up his mind that, come what might, he would refuse all chaises, barrel-organs, and any conceivable dog in spite of ribs, barrel-shaped beyond all conception, and paws so soft and supple.

'But, you see, you'll have the chaise, the barrel-organ, and the dead souls all together.'

'I don't want them!' Tchitchikov said once more.

'Why don't you want them?'