Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/300

288 his moustache, his eyes, his brows, and on his beaver cap.

'The dead souls …' pronounced the lady agreeable in all respects.

'Well, well!' cried her visitor, all excitement.

'The dead souls!' …

'Oh, speak, for God's sake!'

'They are simply a cover, but this is what he is really after: he is trying to elope with the governor's daughter.'

This conclusion was indeed utterly unexpected and in every way extraordinary. The agreeable lady, on hearing it, was simply petrified, she turned pale, she turned pale as death, and certainly was upset in earnest. 'Oh dear!' she cried, clasping her hands, 'that I never should have supposed!'

'But as soon as you opened your mouth, I saw what was in the wind,' answered the lady who was agreeable in all respects.

'Well, what is one to think of boarding-school education after this, Anna Grigoryevna! So this is their innocence!'

'Innocence, indeed! I have heard her say such things as I could not bring myself to repeat!'

'It's heartrending, you know, Anna Grigoryevna, to see what lengths depravity can go to.'

'And the men are all wild over her, though for my part I must own I can see nothing in her. … She is insufferably affected.'

'Ah, my precious, Anna Grigoryevna! she's