Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/75

Rh 'In what weather God has brought you! Such a storm of wind and rain. … You ought to have something to eat after your journey, but it is night-time, we can't cook anything.'

Her words were interrupted by a strange hissing sound so that Tchitchikov was somewhat alarmed: the sound suggested that the whole room was full of snakes, but glancing upwards he was reassured, for he noticed that the clock on the wall was disposed to strike. The hissing was followed at once by a wheezing, and at last with a desperate effort it struck two o'clock with a sound as though some one were hitting a broken pot with a stick, after which the pendulum returned to its tranquil ticking, to right and to left.

Tchitchikov thanked the old lady, saying that he wanted nothing, that she was not to put herself out, that he asked for nothing but a bed and was only curious to know to what place he had come, and whether it was far from here to the estate of Sobakevitch. To which the old lady replied that she had never heard the name and that there was no such landowner.

'You know Manilov, anyway?' said Tchitchikov.

'Why, who is Manilov?'

'A landowner, ma'am.'

'No, I have never heard of him, there is no such landowner here.'

'Who are the landowners here?'

'Bobrov, Svinyin, Kanapatyev, Harpakin, Trepakin, Plyeshakov.'