Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/272

262 are easier now? I suppose you must have got something from your aunt anyway?'

'What shall I say, Afanasy Vassilyevitch? I don't know whether my position is any better. All that came to me was fifty serfs and thirty thousand roubles, with which I shall have to pay part of my debts, and then I shall have absolutely nothing again. And the worst of it is there has been a dirty business about this will. There has been such dishonesty, Afanasy Vassilyevitch! I'll tell you all about it and you will be amazed at the things that have been done. That Tchitchikov …'

'Excuse me, Pyotr Petrovitch; but before we talk about that Tchitchikov let me talk about you. Tell me how much in your opinion would be necessary and sufficient to get you out of your difficulties?'

'Why, to get out of my difficulties, to pay off all my debts and to be able to live on the most moderate scale, I should need at least a hundred thousand or more.'

'Well, and if you had that how would you arrange your life?'

'Why then I should take a modest flat, devote myself to my children's education, for it is no good for me to go into the service, I am not fit for anything.'

'And why are you fit for nothing?'

'Why, what am I fitted for? You can see for yourself that I can't very well begin as a copying clerk. You forget that I have a family. I am forty, already my back aches, I have grown