Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/88

76 After these powerful arguments Tchitchikov had no doubt that the old lady would give way.

'Really,' answered the old lady, 'I am an inexperienced widow; I had better wait a little, maybe the dealers will be coming and I shall find out about prices.'

'For shame, my good woman, it is simply shameful. Come, just think over what you are saying. Who is going to buy them? Why, what use could any one put them to?'

'Well, perhaps they may be put to some use somehow …,' replied the old lady, but she broke off and gazed open-mouthed at him, almost with horror, waiting to see what he would say to it.

'Dead men be put to some use! Ugh, what next! To scare the sparrows at night in your kitchen garden or what?'

'God have mercy on us! What dreadful things you do say!' said the old lady, crossing herself.

'What else do you want to do with them? Besides, the bones and the graves, all that will be left to you; the transfer is only on paper. Well, what do you say? How is it to be? Give me an answer, anyway.'

The old lady pondered again.

'What are you thinking about, Nastasya Petrovna?'

'I really can't make up my mind what to do; I had really better sell you my hemp.'

'Hemp! Upon my soul, I asked you about something quite different and you foist hemp upon me. Hemp is hemp, another time I'll come