Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/55

Rh a smile. 'This easy-chair is always assigned to my guests; whether you like or not you must sit in it.'

Tchitchikov sat down.

'Allow me to offer you a pipe.'

'No, thank you, I do not smoke,' said Tchitchikov affably and with an air of regret.

'Why not?' asked Manilov also affably and with an air of regret.

'I am not used to it, I am afraid of it; they say smoking a pipe dries up the system.'

'Allow me to observe that that is a prejudice. I imagine, indeed, that it is far better for the health to smoke a pipe than to take snuff. There was a lieutenant in our regiment, a very excellent and highly cultured man, who never had a pipe out of his mouth, not only at table but, if I may say so, in every other place. By now he is over forty but, thank God, he is as strong and well as any one could wish to be.'

Tchitchikov observed that it did happen like that and that there were many things in nature that could not be explained even by the profoundest intellect.

'But allow me first to ask one question …,' he added in a voice in which there rang a strange, or almost strange, intonation, and thereupon for some unknown reason he looked round behind him. And Manilov too for some unknown reason looked behind him. 'How long is it since you made out a census return?'

'Oh, not for a long time; in fact, I don't remember when.'