Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/168

156 want to keep them and go on paying the tax on them!'

'But, you know, a transaction of this kind—I say this between ourselves as a friend—is not permissible everywhere, and if I or some one else were to mention it, such a man would have no security for the purchase or profitable fulfilment of the contract.'

'What the devil is he hinting at, the scoundrel!' thought Tchitchikov, and at once brought out with a most unconcerned air: 'It is just as you like, I am not buying them from any special necessity as you imagine, but just … simply from an inner prompting. If you won't take two and a half roubles, good-bye!'

'There's no wringing it out of him, he's stubborn!' thought Sobakevitch. 'Well, God bless you, give me thirty and you shall have them!'

'No, I see you don't want to sell them, good-bye!'

'Excuse me, excuse me,' said Sobakevitch, retaining his hold of Tchitchikov's hand and stepping on his foot, for our hero forgot to be on his guard and the punishment for this carelessness made him flinch and stand on one leg. 'I beg your pardon! I'm afraid I have caused you discomfort. Please sit down here! Please!'

Whereupon he sat Tchitchikov down in an easy-chair with a certain dexterity, like a bear who has been trained and knows how to turn somersaults and to perform various tricks when he is asked such questions as: 'Come show us, Misha, how