Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/266

256 told to turn in the direction of the bazaar. Both the travelling dealers and the local shopkeepers standing at their doors took off their hats respectfully, and Tchitchikov not without dignity lifted his in response. Many of them he knew already; others, though strangers, were so charmed by the smart air of the gentleman who knew so well how to deport himself, that they greeted him as though they too were acquaintances. There was a continual fair going on in the town of Tfooslavl. As soon as the horse fair and the agricultural fair were over, there followed one for the sale of drapery for gentlemen of the utmost refinement. Dealers who arrived in wheeled carriages stayed on till they had to depart in sledges.

'Pray walk in!' a shopkeeper, in a German coat of Moscow cut, with a round shaven chin, and an expression of the most refined gentility, said at the cloth shop, with a polite swagger, as he held his hat in his outstretched hand.

Tchitchikov went into the shop. 'Show me some cloth, my good man.'

The agreeable shopkeeper promptly lifted the flap of the counter and so making way for himself, stood with his back to his wares and his face to his customer. So standing and still holding his hat in his hand he greeted Tchitchikov once more. Then putting his hat on his head and leaning over with both hands on the counter, said: 'What sort of cloth? Do you prefer it of English make or of home manufacture?'