Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/172

160 roubles for you, making twenty-five altogether. But please give me a receipt.'

'Yes, but why do you want a receipt?'

'It's always better to have a receipt, you know. In case of accidents … anything may happen.'

'Very good, give the money here.'

'What do you want the money for? Here it is in my hand. As soon as you have written the receipt, you shall have it the same minute.'

'But excuse me, how can I write the receipt: I must see the money first.'

Tchitchikov let Sobakevitch take the notes from his hand, and the latter, going up to the table and covering the notes with his left hand, with the other wrote on a scrap of paper that a deposit of twenty-five roubles on a purchase of souls had been paid in full. After signing the receipt he looked through the notes once more.

'This note's an old one,' he commented, holding one of them up to the light, 'rather frayed; but there, one can't look at that between friends.'

'The fist, the fist!' Tchitchikov thought to himself, 'and he's a brute into the bargain.'

'And don't you want any of the female sex?'

'No, thank you.'

'I wouldn't charge you much for them. For the sake of our good acquaintance, I will only ask a rouble apiece.'

'No, I have no need of females.'

'Well, since you don't want any, it is useless to discuss it. Every one to his taste, one man