Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/298

286 simply can't imagine, Anna Grigoryevna, how upset I was when I heard all this. "Mistress darling," my Mashka said to me, "look in the looking-glass and see how pale you are." "Don't talk to me of looking-glasses," said I, "I must go and tell Anna Grigoryevna." I instantly ordered the carriage to be brought round; my coachman Andryushka asked me where to drive and I couldn't speak a word, I simply stared in his face like a fool; I do believe he thought I had gone mad. Oh, Anna Grigoryevna, if you could only fancy how upset I was!'

'It certainly is odd,' said the lady agreeable in all respects. 'What can be the meaning of these dead souls? I can't make it out, I must own. This is the second time I have heard of these dead souls; though my husband still declares that Nozdryov's lying, there must be something in it.'

'But just fancy, Anna Grigoryevna, what a state I was in when I heard of it. "And now," Korobotchka says, "I don't know," she says, "what I'm to do. He made me sign some forged document, threw down fifteen roubles in notes; I am a helpless and inexperienced widow," she says, "I know nothing about it. …" You see what things are happening! If you could only imagine how upset I am!'

'But, say what you like, it's not a question of dead souls, there's something behind all this.'

'I confess I think so too,' the simply agreeable lady pronounced, not without surprise, and was