Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/228



next day everything was arranged most successfully. Skudronzhoglo was delighted to lend ten thousand roubles without interest or security, simply upon a signed receipt: so ready was he to help any one on to the way of prosperity. That was not all: he undertook to accompany Tchitchikov to Hlobuev's, in order to look over the latter's estate with him. After a substantial breakfast they set off all three in Pavel Ivanovitch's carriage; Skudronzhoglo's racing droshky followed empty. Yarb ran on ahead, chasing the birds off the road. They did the twelve miles in a little over an hour and a half and then caught sight of a small village with two houses—a big new one that was unfinished and had remained in the rough for many years, and a little old one. They found the owner very untidy and sleepy, as he was only just awake; there was a patch on his coat and holes in his boots.

He was as delighted at their visit as though it were a great piece of good fortune: as though he were seeing brothers from whom he had long been parted.

'Konstantin Fyodorovitch! Platon Mihailovitch!' he cried. 'My dear friends, it is good