Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/309

Rh 'Well, my good lads,' said Tchitchikov, addressing them graciously, 'we must pack up and set off.'

'We'll drive in fine style, Pavel Ivanovitch,' said Selifan. 'The road's firm, I'll be bound, snow enough has fallen. It certainly is high time to get out of the town. I am so sick of it I can't bear the sight of it.'

'Go to the carriage-maker's and get the carriage put on runners instead of wheels,' said Tchitchikov. He himself went off to the town, not that he was anxious to pay farewell visits to any one. It would have been rather awkward after all that had happened, especially as there were the most discreditable stories going about the town concerning him. He even avoided meeting any one and only went as stealthily as possible to the merchant's from whom he had bought the cloth of the 'flame and smoke of Navarino,' he took four yards for a coat and breeches, and went off with it himself to the same tailor. For double the price the latter undertook to work at the highest pressure, and set the tailoring population plying their needles, their irons and their teeth all night by candlelight, and the coat was ready next day, though a little late. The horses were all harnessed and waiting. Tchitchikov tried on the coat, however. It was splendid, exactly like the first. But alas! he noticed a smooth white patch upon his head, and murmured sorrowfully: 'What reason was there to abandon myself to such despair? I oughtn't to have torn out my hair anyway.'