Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/302

290 when one lady looks at them, and as red as a cranberry in the eyes of another.

'Well, here's another proof for you that she is pale,' the agreeable lady went on. 'I remember as though it were now, how I was sitting beside Manilov and said to him: "Just look how pale she is." Any one must be as senseless as our gentlemen here to be so fascinated by her. And our charming gentleman … How hateful I thought him! You can't imagine, Anna Grigoryevna, how hateful I thought him.'

'Yet there were ladies who were quite taken with him.'

'I, Anna Grigoryevna? No, you can never say that, never, never!'

'But I am not talking about you, as though there were nobody but you.'

'Never, never, Anna Grigoryevna! Allow me to tell you what I know myself very well indeed! Perhaps there may have been something on the part of some ladies who give themselves out as so unapproachable.'

'I beg your pardon, Sofya Ivanovna! Allow me to tell you that there has never been any scandalous gossip about me. About any one else, perhaps, but not about me, allow me to tell you.'

'What are you taking offence for? There were other ladies there, you know, such as those who made a rush for the chairs by the door so as to sit near him.'

It might have seemed inevitable that a storm should follow these observations of the agreeable