Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/236

224 another gentleman of leisure and sure to be home, unless he has gone off somewhere for game of cards; and there are lots of others, too, somewhat nearer, Truhatchevsky, Byegushkin—they all cumber the earth and do nothing.'

'Just so, just so,' said the president, and at once sent a messenger to fetch them all.

'Another request I have to make of you,' said Tchitchikov; 'send for the authorised representative of a lady from whom I have also made purchases, the son of Father Kirill, the head priest: he is employed here.'

'To be sure, we will send for him too,' said the president, 'everything shall be done, and do not give anything to the clerks; that I beg of you. My friends are not to pay.' Saying this he at once gave some order to Ivan Antonovitch, which evidently did not please him. The purchase of serfs evidently made a good impression on the president, especially when he saw that the purchases mounted up to a hundred thousand roubles. For some minutes he looked into Tchitchikov's face with an expression of great satisfaction, and at last said:

'Well, I must say! That's the way to do things, Pavel Ivanovitch! Well, you have got something worth having.'

'Yes, I have,' answered Tchitchikov.

'It's a good deed, it's a good deed really.'

'Yes, I see myself that I could not do anything

that would be better. In any case a man's goal remains undefined, if he does not firmly take his