dead souls, imperial envoy

Chapter 19 Dead Souls (19)
At such times, Petrushka hung the master's trousers and the crimson tuxedo with florets on wooden hangers, took them to the corridor, beat them with a thin stick, and then brushed them with a brush, making the corridor dirty. dusty.He was about to take the clothes off the hanger when he glanced down the corridor and saw Serivan coming out of the stable.They glanced at each other and understood: the master is lying down and asleep, and we can go for a walk as we please.Petrushka immediately took his coat and trousers into the house, and went downstairs with the coachman to set out; neither of them said anything about the destination of the trip, but only a few irrelevant things along the way. , walk around and smile.Their journey was not far: rather, they just went to the house on the other side of the street facing the inn, pushed open the low glassed door blackened by smoke, and entered a more or less Basement house.All kinds of people were already sitting at the tables inside: some were shaved and some were unshaven, some were wearing only a single coat, some were wearing bare leather jackets, and some were wearing sackcloth. Dressed in dress.We don't know exactly what Petrushka and Serivan did there, but when they came out an hour later, they held each other's arms and said nothing. The corners of the wall support each other.They held arms tightly and climbed up the stairs together. After climbing a flight of stairs for more than ten minutes, they finally climbed up the stairs.Petrushka stood before his low bed and thought for a while, considering how to lie down decently, but at last he lay down on his side, leaving his legs on the floor.Serivan also lay down on the bed, with his head on Petrushka's stomach, forgetting that he should not have been lying there, that he could have slept in the servant's house, if not in the stable beside the horses.The two soon fell asleep, snoring as never before; the master in the other room answered with a shrill whistle of his nose.Soon everything became quiet, and the whole hotel fell into a sweet dream, only one window was still lit. There lived a Ryazan second lieutenant, and it could be seen that he liked riding boots very much, because he had Ordered four pairs and am now excitedly trying on the fifth pair.Several times he wanted to go to the bed and take off his boots to sleep, but he couldn't sleep: the riding boots were really well made and beautiful, and he stood there for a long time admiring the strong and playful heels.

Clues in the Eight Feasts

Chichikov's business was one of the topics of discussion in the town.People began to debate whether it was cost-effective to buy serfs and transport them to other places.As can be seen from the debate, many people are quite insightful.Someone said: "Of course, that's the way it is, there's nothing to argue about: the southern land is good and fertile; but how can Chichikov's serfs live without water? There isn't even a river there." ——

"It doesn't matter if you don't have water, it doesn't matter, Stepan Dmitrievich, but emigration is not a sure thing. Everyone knows what a peasant is: to a new place, and They are going to farm, and they have nothing, no houses, no yards, and they will definitely run away, isn’t this the same as two makes four, once they run away, they won’t even find a shadow.”

"I'm sorry, Alexey Ivanovich, but I don't think so when you say Chichikov's serfs will run away. He sent him to Kamchatka, and they would clap their hands together, pick up an ax, and hack a new house out for themselves if they were handed out a pair of cotton gloves."

"But, Ivan Grigorievich, you have not thought of one crucial fact: you have not figured out what Chichikov's serfs were like. You probably forgot that good landowners don't sell their hands. Yes; and I'll bet my head that Chichikov buys either a thief or a drunkard, or some lazy desperadoes who get into fights."

"Yes, I agree with that, yes, no one sells a good man, Chichikov's serfs must be drunkards; but there is also learning here, and the knowledge lies in this: they are villains today, but they moved to a new place But it will immediately become a standard good citizen. Such things are not uncommon: in the present and in history."

"Never, never," said the superintendent of the public factory, "believe me, there will never be such a thing. For Chichikov's serfs will soon have two temptations. The first That's right there near Little Russia. Everyone knows that wine in Little Russia is freely bought and sold. I guarantee you that they'll be drunk to death within two weeks. Another big temptation is their migration Chichikov can deal with them severely, and will not let go of a little thing, and Chichikov can't rely on others, if necessary. When it’s time, you have to shake your mouth or turn your neck with your hands.”

"He can find a housekeeper, why does he have to beat the neck by himself?"

"Find him a housekeeper: they are all liars!"

"The butler cheats because the boss doesn't care about things."

"That's a good thing," many people said in support, "as long as the boss knows the good and the bad, knows a little about running a family business, and can recognize the good and the bad, he will always have a good steward under him." But the director of the public factory said , where to find a good housekeeper for less than five thousand rubles.But the Minister of Civil Affairs said that three thousand rubles would also be found.The director said: "Where can you find such a thing? Probably only in your nostrils and eyes?"

"No," said the chief, "you don't have to look for them in your nostrils. There's one in the county. He's Peter Petrovich Samoilov. He's a good housekeeper for Chichikov's serfs!"

Many people also put themselves in Chichikov's shoes and worried about the difficulties that such a large number of serfs might encounter. They even worried that the restless serfs bought by Chichikov would make trouble halfway Here comes the riot.In this regard, the police chief said that there is no need to worry about riots, and there are county police officers.Even if the county sheriff himself didn't care, just put on one of his caps and drive that horde of serfs where they were going.Many people have expressed their opinions on how to get rid of the audacity of the serfs bought by Chichikov.There are all kinds of opinions.Some are too harsh with a military taste, too harsh.Other insights are more modest.The postmaster pointed out that Chichikov shouldered a sacred obligation. He said that Chichikov could become the father of his own serfs to a certain extent, and he wanted to establish a free school.Speaking of this, he took advantage of the opportunity to praise Lancaster's mutual aid teaching method [11] for showing his erudition.There were so many discussions in the city that out of sympathy, many people even wanted to personally tell Chichikov some of the above-mentioned suggestions, and some even expressed their willingness to provide an escort team to help escort the serfs to their destination.

For these suggestions, Chichikov expressed his deep gratitude and said that if necessary, he would definitely adopt them; but he resolutely declined the escort team. He said that the escort team was unnecessary. Definitely not picking quarrels and provoking trouble.But these arguments had the best effect Chichikov could think of.That is to say, people are saying that he is a real millionaire.The residents of the city already liked Chichikov very much, as we already knew in Chapter 1.After hearing these rumors, they liked him even more from the bottom of their hearts.But, to tell the truth, they were good and honest people, and they got on well with each other, and there was always an air of intimacy and peculiar affection in their conversations: "Dear friend Ilya Ilyich! . . . "

"Hey, Brother Antipator Zaharievich! . . . "

"You're talking too much, old man."

The name of the postmaster was Ivan Andreevich, and he always greeted him with the words: "Sprechen zy Deitch Ivan Andreyitch?"[12]
In a word, everyone is like a family.Many people are studious and industrious.The Minister of Civil Affairs could recite completely from memory many passages from Zhukovsky's "Lyudmila", which at that time was still a new work.He recited it vividly, especially "sleep in the pine forest, sleep in the valley" and the word "hush" so vividly that he could make people see a sleeping valley; every time he recited here, he would close his eyes Get up and think it is vivid.The postmaster was obsessed with philosophical discussions. He read Young's "Night Thoughts" and Eckarthausen's "Secrets of Nature" very hard, even studying late into the night, and made some very long excerpts; No one knows what kind of words and sentences are used.But he talks humorously, ornately, as he himself said, he likes to embellish speech.In order to embellish his speech, he often uses a lot of colloquial words; In a certain way", "can be said relatively" and other colloquial expressions can be poured out in piles; Insinuations and insinuations add a poignant flavor.The others, too, were cultivated people: some read Karamsin, some read Moscow News, and of course some read nothing at all.Some people are called lazy people. When they need to do something, they have to be kicked to make them move.Some people, as the saying goes, lie on the kang all their lives and don’t dislike it. They are utter slackers.As for appearance, everyone knew that they were all healthy people, not one consumptive person.This kind of person is usually called a fat pier, a meatball, a black jar, a big belly, a small toy, a small neck, etc. when he is in love with his wife in the closet.Generally speaking, however, they were all good, hospitable people.As long as they had a meal or played cards with them, they would become close friends, not to mention that Chichikov had an impressive moral accomplishment and deeply understood the true meaning of being lovable.They fell in love with him, and he couldn't find a way out of the city; all he heard was: "Just another week, stay with us for another week, Pavel Ivanovich !”—In short, he has become what everyone calls the apple of the eye.Chichikov made an incomparably better impression on the ladies (which is amazing).

In order to make this point a little clearer, a few words have to be said about the ladies themselves and their social activities, their inner world has to be colored, as is often said; but, the author feels, It's hard to write about.On the one hand, the reverence he has for the wives of high officials and dignitaries makes him hesitate; on the other hand... it is difficult to write, and on the other hand, all the wives in N City are... no, I just can't write; Really feel nervous. The most dazzling thing about the ladies of N City is... Strange to say, they just can't lift their pens, as if they are very heavy.So be it, the character of the ladies seems to have to be left to those whose palette is brighter and more colorful, and we can only say a few words about their appearance and less obvious things. The ladies of N-city are all men of the scene, and in this respect they may be boldly held up as an example to the ladies of other places.They surpassed even the ladies of Petersburg and Moscow in respect of status, manners, etiquette, etiquette, and above all, scrupulous pursuit of fashion.They were well dressed, and when they visited relatives and friends in the city, they also followed the latest fashion in a carriage, with a servant standing behind the carriage, and the servant's livery was trimmed with gold sash.A business card for visiting guests, even if you just write your name on a black plum blossom or a red square ace, is a very sacred thing.It was precisely because of this that two wives who were close friends and relatives had a falling out. The reason was that one of them didn't care about it and didn't pay a return visit for some reason.Later, their relatives and husbands tried every means to reconcile them, but failed.It turns out that everything in the world can be done, but reconciling the two wives who had fallen out due to neglect of follow-up visits is extremely difficult.The ladies, to use the parlance of the city's society, have been suspicious ever since.In order to show off, there have also been many scenes that cannot be handed over, and these scenes have also made husbands want to take on the responsibility of knights.It's just that no duel happened because of this, because they were all civil officials, but they took every opportunity to slander each other. Everyone knew that this practice was often more hurtful than a duel. The wives of N City are serious, and have a noble indignation against all immoral behaviors and all kinds of temptations, and they will not show mercy to any weakness and scandal, and will execute them without exception.Even if they have a so-called "third party", they will keep it secret and will never show any signs of expression; He can also quickly and rationally deal with this "third party" rumor with a common saying: "Godfather and godmother are together, why should others be suspicious?" Like many wives of my wife, words are very important.They don't say: "I blew my nose" or "I spit"; they say "I twisted my nose" or "I used a handkerchief."Under no circumstances would they say, "This cup or this plate smells bad." Nothing could be said to call attention to the fact, except: "This cup smells bad." Poor behaviour." Or something like that.In order to make the Russian language more pure, they discarded almost half the words in their conversation, so they had to frequently resort to French.The situation is quite different when it comes to French: even expressions ten times more vulgar than those mentioned above can be used.Regarding the wives of N City, if we only talk about superficial phenomena, we can only talk about these.There are, of course, many other things to be found by looking deeper; but it is extremely risky to look into the depths of ladies' hearts.So let's go on and stick to the surface.Chichikov had been seldom mentioned by the ladies before, though they had done him all justice for his rather decent elegance in society; many other virtues.But ladies are not sycophants; everything is to blame for the word "millionaire," but not the millionaire himself; It also contains a kind of power that works on both good and bad people, bad people, and good people. In a word, it can work on all kinds of people.The millionaire is in an advantageous position, he can see a baseness without interest, pure baseness without purpose: many people know perfectly well that they have nothing to gain from him, and they also They have no right to get anything, but they still want to catch up with him, give him a few flattering smiles, do everything possible to get close to him, bow to him, or hear that he was invited to a banquet by someone, so they have to try to be the last one. .

(End of this chapter)