Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/115

Rh work, pretending to be busy with the work itself, and at the same time they were in a twitter every time the head of the department appeared. The time at school suddenly rose up before him as a paradise lost for ever: his studies seemed something so much above this paltry work of copying! That preparation for the service seemed to him now far superior to the service itself. And all at once his incomparable wonderful teacher whom no one could replace rose up vividly before his mind, and tears suddenly gushed from his eyes, the room began to go round, the tables grew misty, his fellow-clerks were a blur, and he almost swooned. 'No,' he thought, when he came to himself, 'I will set to work, however petty it may seem at first!' Hardening his heart he determined to do his work as the others did.

Is there any place where there are no enjoyments? They exist even in Petersburg in spite of its grim forbidding aspect. There is a cruel frost of thirty degrees in the streets, a witch's hurricane howls like a despairing devil, flapping the collars of men's fur coats against their heads, powdering their moustaches and the noses of beasts: but there is a hospitable gleam from some little window even on the fourth storey; in a cosy room a conversation that warms both heart and soul is carried on to the hiss of the samovar, in the humble light of stearine candles; an inspired and uplifting page is read from one of the poets with whom God has enriched His