Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/44

32 ended in nothing but words, however. In his study there always lay a book with a marker at the fourteenth page, which he had been reading for the last two years. In his home something was always lacking: in the drawing-room there was excellent furniture upholstered in smart silken material which had certainly cost a good price, but there had not been enough of it to cover everything and two of the easy-chairs had remained simply swathed in sacking. The master of the house had been for some years past in the habit of warning his guests: 'Don't sit on those armchairs, they are not finished yet.' In some of the rooms there was no furniture at all, although in the early days after their marriage he had said to his wife: 'To-morrow, my love, we must see about putting some furniture into those rooms if only for a time.' In the evening a very handsome candlestick of dark bronze with antique figures of the three Graces and an elegant mother-of-pearl shield was put on the table, and beside it was set a humble copper relic, unsteady on its legs and always covered with tallow, though this never attracted the notice of the master of the house, the mistress, or the servants. His wife was … however they were thoroughly satisfied with each other. Although they had been married over eight years they would still each offer the other a piece of apple or a sweet or a nut, and say in a touchingly tender voice expressive of the most perfect devotion: 'Open your little mouth, my love, and I will pop it in.' It need hardly be said that on