Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/191

Rh was so very comfortable and now it seems uncomfortable all at once. Petrushka, I suppose you have been stupidly rearranging the luggage? There seem to be baskets sticking up everywhere!'

Platonov laughed, 'I can explain that,' he said, 'Pyotr Petrovitch stuffed them in for the journey.'

'To be sure,' said Petrushka, turning round from the box. 'I was told to put them all in the carriage—pasties and pies.'

'Yes indeed, Pavel Ivanovitch,' said Selifan, looking round from the box in high good humour. 'A most worthy gentleman, and most hospitable! He sent us out a glass of champagne each, and bade them let us have the dishes from the table, very fine dishes, most delicate flavour. There never was such a worthy gentleman.'

'You see he has satisfied every one,' said Platonov. 'But tell me truly, can you spare the time to go out of your way to a village some seven or eight miles from here? I should like to say good-bye to my sister and my brother-in-law.'

'I should be delighted,' said Tchitchikov.

'You will not be the loser by doing so; my brother-in-law is a very remarkable man.'

'In what way?' asked Tchitchikov.

'He is the best manager that has ever been seen in Russia. It's only a little more than ten years since he bought a neglected estate for which he gave barely twenty thousand, and he has brought