Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/270

260 The old man greeted all of them and turned at once to Hlobuev:

'Pardon me, I saw you from a distance going into the shop and ventured to disturb you. If you will be free in a little while and will be passing by my house, do me the favour to come in for a few minutes. I want to have a talk with you.'

Hlobuev answered, 'Very good, Afanasy Vassilyevitch.'

And the old man bowing to all of them again went out.

'It makes me feel quite giddy,' said Tchitchikov, 'when I think that that man has ten millions. It's positively incredible.'

'It isn't the right state of things though,' said Vishnepokromov, 'capital ought not to be in one man's hands. That is the subject of ever so many treatises all over Europe nowadays. If you have money, well, share it with others: entertain, give balls, keep up a beneficent luxury that gives bread to tradesmen and artisans.'

'I can't understand it,' said Tchitchikov. 'Ten millions and he lives like a humble peasant! Why, goodness knows what one might do with ten millions! Why, one might so arrange one's affairs as to keep no company but that of princes and generals.'

'Yes,' the shopkeeper put in, 'it really is a lack of refinement. If a merchant becomes distinguished, he is no longer a merchant but is in a way a financier. In that case I would take a