Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/143



hero was thoroughly scared, however. Though the chaise flew along at full speed and Nozdryov's estate was soon left behind, out of sight, hidden behind fields and the rise and fall of the ground, he still looked behind him in terror as though expecting every minute to be pursued and overtaken. His breathing was laboured, and when he tried laying his hands on his heart he found that it was fluttering like a quail in a cage. 'Well, he has given me a treat! Just think what a fellow!' At this point there followed a number of angry and violent imprecations referring to Nozdryov, and indeed some bad language was uttered. How could it be otherwise? He was a Russian, and in a rage too! Besides, it was no joking matter. 'Say what you like,' he said, 'if the police-captain had not turned up in the nick of time I might well have looked my last on the light of day! I should have disappeared like a bubble on the water without leaving a trace, leaving no descendants and bequeathing to my future children neither fortune nor honour!' Our hero was always very much troubled about his descendants.

'What a nasty gentleman!' Selifan was thinking to himself. 'I have never seen such a gentleman before. He deserves to be spat upon! Better 131