Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/170

160 'There is nothing very difficult about it,' said Petrushka, with a sidelong glance at him, 'excepting when we go down hill, we are to keep straight on, there was nothing more at all.'

'And excepting brandy I'll be bound you have not put a drop to your lips. And you are drunk now, I shouldn't wonder.'

Seeing the turn the conversation was taking, Petrushka simply wrinkled up his nose. He was on the point of saying that he had never touched it, but he felt somehow ashamed to say so.

'It's pleasant driving in the carriage,' said Selifan, turning round.

'What's that?'

'I say, Pavel Ivanovitch, it is pleasant for your honour driving in the carriage, it's better than the chaise, it's not so jolting.'

'Get on, get on, nobodv asked you about that.'

Selifan switched the horses' sides and addressed his remarks to Petrushka: 'Did you hear, they say this gentleman, Koshkaryov, dresses up his peasants like Germans; you wouldn't know what they were at a distance, they strut along like cranes, just as Germans do. And the women don't tie kerchiefs round their heads like a pie or wear a headband, but some sort of German kapor, as German women, you know, go about in kapors. A kapor, that's what it's called, you know, kapor—it's some sort of German thing, you know, a kapor.'

'I should like to see you dressed up like a