Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/158

148 'What nonsense! For the sake of a foolish word … I am not at all that sort of person. I am ready to go and call on him myself, if you like.'

'He would not think of allowing that, he will come himself,' said Tchitchikov, while he thought to himself, 'the generals came in pat; though I was gagging away quite at random.'

There was a rustling sound. The walnut door of a carved cupboard flew open, and on the further side of the open door a living figure appeared, clutching with her lovely hand at the handle of the door. If a transparent picture, lighted up by a lamp behind it, had suddenly gleamed upon a dark room, it would not have been so startling as that figure, radiant with life, which seemed to have suddenly appeared to light up the room. It seemed as though a ray of sunlight, suddenly lighting up the ceiling, the cornice and the dark corners, had flown into the room together with her. She seemed to be remarkably tall. But it was an illusion, and was due to her exceptional slenderness and the harmonious symmetry of all parts of her from her head to her finger tips. The dress all of one colour, hastily flung on, had been flung on with such taste, that it seemed as though the dressmakers of both capitals had consulted together how to attire her to the best advantage. That was an illusion. She made her own dresses and made them anyhow; a piece of uncut material was caught up in two or three