Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/150

140 thought to himself: 'A very strange fellow this Tchitchikov!'

'What a queer creature this Tyentyetnikov is!' Tchitchikov was thinking meanwhile.

'Allow me to set things right,' he said aloud. 'I can go to his Excellency's and say that it happened through a misunderstanding on your part, owing to your youth and your ignorance of life and the world.'

'I don't intend to grovel before him!' said Tyentyetnikov emphatically.

'God forbid, grovel!' said Tchitchikov, and crossed himself. 'To influence him by advice like a prudent mediator, but to grovel … excuse me, Andrey Ivanovitch, I did not expect that in return for my good-will and devotion … I did not expect you to take my words in such an offensive sense!'

'Forgive me, Pavel Ivanovitch, I was to blame!' said Tyentyetnikov, genuinely touched, taking both his hands gratefully. 'Your kind sympathy is precious to me, I assure you! But let us drop this subject, let us never speak of it again!'

'In that case I'll simply go to the general's without any reason,' said Tchitchikov.

'What for?' asked Tyentyetnikov, looking at Tchitchikov with surprise.

'To pay him my respects,' said Tchitchikov.

'What a strange fellow this Tchitchikov is!' thought Tyentyetnikov.