dead souls, imperial envoy

Chapter 2 Dead Souls (2)
Before Chichikov had time to observe the surrounding situation clearly, the governor grabbed his arm and took him to introduce him to the governor's wife.Our gentleman, of course, was not disrespectful: he made a compliment that was quite appropriate for a middle-aged man with neither too much nor too little rank.Our gentleman watched the dancers intently with their hands behind their backs for about 2 minutes while the couples danced in pairs, leaving the non-dancers by the wall.Many of the ladies were well-dressed and fashionable, but some wore clothes that could be obtained in provincial towns.The men here, as elsewhere, can be divided into two categories: the thin ones, who hang around the ladies; French with extremely fashionable sideburns, or simply clean-shaven, showing a pleasing face, they sat smartly beside the ladies, and as in Petersburg, they talked French and teased the ladies They are happy.Another kind of man is fat, or like Chichikov: neither too fat nor too thin.Men of this type, as opposed to men of the first type, hardly looked at the ladies, but glanced here and there to see if the servants of the governor's mansion had placed the green felt card-table for whist. place.Their faces are fat and round, and some of them have several small tumors, and some even have pockmarks on their faces. Their hair is neither combed in a cockscomb style, nor curled. Not to mention the "let it be" style as the French say-their hair is either cut short or combed shiny, and their faces are mostly round and strong.These are the local dignitaries. Fat people are smarter and more capable than thin people in this world.Most of the skinny people are assigned, or just a name somewhere, wandering around all day; their existence is too frivolous to be trusted at all.Fat people never sit in the second seat, they always sit in the first seat, once they sit down, they are safe and secure, and they would rather the seat be broken and crushed, or sit right by it, and never give up their seat.They don't like ostentation, and although their dresses are not as well-cut as the skinny ones, their money-boxes are full of God-given treasures.The skinny man would have mortgaged all the serfs to the pawn shop in less than three years; the fat man was comfortable and silent, but in the blink of an eye—he bought a house somewhere at the end of the city, and then He bought another house on the other side of the city, then bought a farm on the outskirts of the city, and then bought a large village together with the farmland, all in his wife's name, of course.In the end, the fat man, who had served God and the Emperor, after winning the praise of the people, returned home, became a landowner and a respectable Russian lord, lived a life of generosity and hospitality, and lived a very good life.After his death, some thin heirs appeared, and these thin heirs would, according to the Russian custom, pawn their father's property and squander it quickly.Needless to say, these were the thoughts that our Mr. Chichikov had in mind as he observed these people, and he ended up joining the fat man's company.Almost all he saw here were familiar faces: the Inspector with two thick black eyebrows, blinking his left eye from time to time, as if to say, "Come with me, brother, go to the next door, I want to tell you something." "secret", but in fact he is a mature and taciturn person; the short postmaster is a witty talker, and often talks about philosophy;All three greeted him as if they were old friends, and our Mr. Chichikov bowed slightly to them with some merriment.Among these he got acquainted with Manilov, who was very kind and polite, and Sobakevich, who was a little clumsy, who stepped on him the first time he met and said: "Excuse me. .” Soon someone stuffed the cards into his hand, and he bowed very politely to accept the cards.They sat at a card table covered with green felt and played until supper.As if absorbed in a serious business, they both stopped all small talk.Though the postmaster was a witty philosopher, as soon as the cards were in his hand, his face took on a pensive expression, and his lower lip clenched his upper lip, and he did not put it down throughout the game.When he played a big hand, he always knocked on the table with his hands hard and said something-if it was a queen, he would say: "Fuck you, old witch!" If it was a king, he would say: "Tampov's peasant, go!" the head of the civil administration often said when he played his cards: "I'll pull the boy's beard! I'll pull the woman's beard!" When I went to the card table, I often heard such words: "Alas! There are no other cards, let's resign ourselves to fate, let's play red diamonds!" Or a few simple noises: "Hearts! Hearts are rotten! Spades are straws!" Or shouted: "Little spades Nigger! Nigger! Blackened Peaches," or simply, "Nigger!"—these were the nicknames they used to give to cards of all suits when they used to play together.When the game was over, they bickered as usual, very loudly.

Our gentleman also participated in the quarrel, but he quarreled very cleverly. Although he quarreled, he quarreled as if he felt very comfortable. Wrong card", "I had the honor of eating your dick", etc.In order to make the quarreling opponent more support his point of view, he often handed over his silver snuff box inlaid with enamel patterns. On the bottom of the snuff box, two violets can be seen, which are used to add fragrance.Our gentleman is most concerned with the two landowners mentioned above, Manilov and Sobakevich.He even immediately called the Minister of Civil Affairs and the Postmaster aside to inquire about the situation of the two landowners.Judging from the few questions he asked, our gentleman is not just curious, but has foresight. He first asked the two landlords how many serfs each had and how the manor was, and then asked about their respect. first name.It didn't take him long to completely charm the two landowners.The landowner Manilov was in his prime of life, and he always smiled with his eyes closed, as if he was as sweet as candy.He was already fascinated by Chichikov.He firmly held Chichikov's hand, and invited him to visit his farm, which was only fifteen versts from the town, by all means.Upon hearing the invitation, Chichikov bowed politely, and sincerely shook hands with the other party, and replied that he was not only very happy to pay the visit, but also considered it his duty to fulfill.At this moment Sobakevich also broke in with a brief "Come to our house, too," and saluted him with his feet together.Those gigantic feet wore a pair of leather boots of such size that it was hard to find him at a time when Hercules had disappeared from Russia.

The next day Chichikov was invited to a luncheon at the house of the postmaster.The card game started at three o'clock in the afternoon after lunch and continued until two o'clock in the middle of the night.Here our gentleman made the acquaintance of the landowner Nozdryov, an impertinent young man in his thirties, and after a few words, he began to address him as "you and me".Nozdryov did the same with the police chief and the prosecutor, but when the big stakes began, the police chief and the prosecutor watched the cards he drew very carefully, and every card he played was very careful.

The next day, Chichikov attended a party at the Home of the Head of Civil Affairs. The Head of Civil Affairs did not notice that there were two wives among the guests and came out to greet him in slightly greasy nightgowns.Afterwards, he attended the party and card game at the vice-governor's house, attended the big banquet held by the taxpayer, attended the small but expensive luncheon held by the attorney general, and attended the meeting of the president of the chamber of commerce. A tea-party, though as simple as a luncheon, after morning prayers.

In short, our gentleman did not linger even an hour at the hotel, he came back only to rest for the night.Our gentleman is very good at such things, and is already a seasoned social veteran.He can handle any topic, talk about stud farms, he will tell you about stud farms; The inside story of the court is not ignorant; when it comes to billiards - he is also an amateur at playing billiards; Very knowledgeable, too; when it comes to customs inspectors—as if he were the customs inspector himself.The most commendable thing is that when he talks, he speaks carefully and his voice is not too loud or too small. No matter how you look at it, he is a very noble person, and all the officials are very happy with his presence.The Governor thinks he is an honest man; the Attorney-General thinks he is a capable man; the Civil Affairs Minister thinks he is a respectable scholar; The Commissioner's wife thought him a very polite and very kind person.Even the landowner Sobakevich, who usually had a bad opinion of people, went back to the farm in the middle of the night to undress and lie down, and said to his bony wife: "Baby, today I went to the governor's mansion for a party. The director had lunch at home, and got acquainted with Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, the sixth-rank officer: what a wonderful person!" His wife gave a "hum" and kicked him as a reply.Our gentleman soon won the admiration of the town, and this good reputation was maintained until the guests exposed him to a strange hobby-he did a business, in the eyes of these provincials, as they said, "a queer thing." ——This strange incident has plunged the whole city into a fog——We will soon talk about this strange incident about him.

Two smooth start

Our gentleman has been in the city for more than a week. He has been going to banquets and parties these days. He is living happily. It can be said that he is in the honeymoon period with the city.At last he decided to extend his activities beyond the city, to fulfill the visits he had promised, to the landowners Manilov and Sobakevich.He has another more important reason for doing this, a more important thing that makes him more eager... However, these need to be read slowly, and you need to have enough patience to finish reading this novel. The novel is very long, and the story gets more and more bizarre as it unfolds, until the end of the novel.Our Mr. Chichikov ordered Serivan, the coachman, to harness the buggy already familiar to the reader early in the morning; Petrushka was left at the inn to look after the room and the trunk.It will not be superfluous for the reader to get acquainted with these two servants of our gentleman.Although they are not the main characters, they are just so-called second- and third-rate characters, and they are even extras,

The stories about them are not the main line and important plot of this novel, they just show up occasionally-but the author likes to tell everything clearly, and in this respect, although he is a Russian, he is willing to be like the Germans. Accurate and fine.Of course, this does not take up too much ink and time, because in addition to what the reader already knows, Petrushka wears a frock coat given to him by a fat and big old gentleman, has a big nose and two thick coats. Lips, and nothing else to describe.His character is not so much talkative, but more like a habit of silence, reticent by nature; he is even studious, and has an elegant hobby of reading. As for the content of the book, he never picks and chooses: the book is about the adventures of the heroes and the return of the beauties. Whether it is a prayer book or a child's literacy textbook, no matter what he reads, he can concentrate on reading it; even if he sees a chemistry book, he will read it without hesitation.What he likes is just the matter of reading rather than what he reads, or to put it more clearly, what he likes is the process of reading, as he himself said: the letters can always be connected to form a word—as for this word What it means is probably only a ghost knows.Most of the time, he finds a place to lie down and read at random. The front hall and the dark corridor are all places where he reads. This can be seen from his mattress that has been pressed as thin and hard as a pancake.In addition to his fondness for reading, he has two other characteristics, and these two characteristics constitute his other two habits: one is not taking off his clothes when he sleeps, and he often falls asleep wearing that frock coat; With a unique body odor that resembles the smell of a bedroom, no matter where he is, as soon as he makes his bed and moves his belongings in, even if it is in a room that has never been lived in, that room The house immediately feels as if it has been lived in for more than ten years.Although our Mr. Chichikov is a picky person, and his sensitive nose smells of Petrushka in the morning, he can only frown, shake his head and say: "You The guy probably sweats too much, what's the matter. You better go out and take a bath." At this moment Petrushka said nothing, and immediately went to find something to do: not to brush the master's clothes hanging on the hanger The tuxedo on the clothes is to clean up those miscellaneous things.He is so taciturn that everyone does not know what he is thinking in his heart—maybe he muttered in his heart: "You are really, it is not troublesome to repeat a sentence forty times..." What is a servant muttering in his heart when he is taught by his master? Maybe only God knows.With Petrushka, we can start with that.Shirifan the coachman is a very different kind of person... However, the author is deeply ashamed to waste so much time in order to introduce a few servants. According to the author's experience, the reader is not willing to make friends with inferior people.Such is the case with Russians: even if the rank is only one step higher than him, he is very willing to make friends; acquaintance with a count or duke is much better than an intimate friend with ordinary people.The author is even worried about his protagonist, because he is only a sixth grade official.The seventh-rank officer is willing to make friends with him, but for those who have climbed to the rank of general, he probably can only get a look of contempt—just like a proud person treats everything crawling under his feet, even they will ignore it. To ignore him would be death for the author.However, even if these two ideas are desperate, the author has to go back and continue talking about his protagonist.Chichikov explained everything to the two servants the night before, and the next morning after getting up and washing himself, he wiped his whole body from foot to head with a damp sponge (this was done only on Sunday, and this day happened to be Sunday) , shaved his face like satin, put on the crimson tuxedo with floret dots, and then put on a bearskin lining coat, walked down the stairs with the help of the hotel clerk from left to right, and got into the convertible The carriage, the carriage turned and rolled out of the hotel door as usual.On the street, a passing priest took off his hat and saluted, and several children in dirty and thin clothes held out their hands tremblingly: "Master, have pity on the poor orphan!" The whip, and the carriage was bouncing up and down the velvety road.Chichikov rejoiced when he saw the striped road-post, for it meant the end of cobbled roads and all other misery.After a few more vigorous bumps of the head against the roof of the hood, Chichikov finally waited until his carriage sped along the soft dirt road.After leaving the city, according to our usual practice, we should start to describe the scenery on both sides of the road: mounds, spruce forests, sparse small pine forests, wild juniper trees, burnt trunks of big pine trees, miscellaneous There are many, a desolate and mixed scene.Oncoming are several villages in a straight line. In the village, there are rows of houses that look like old firewood piles, with gray roofs and wooden carved decorations underneath, like rows of embroidered handkerchiefs.On the bench by the door, as usual, there were a few farmers in bare sheepskin jackets sitting there dozing off.Fat-faced and corseted women looked out of the upper windows, and from the lower windows there was either a calf or a blind pig peering in, in short, the familiar suburban scene.After walking fourteen versts, Chichikov remembered: According to Manilov, his estate would be there soon, but they did not see the farm until sixteen versts had been traveled. To the oncoming two farmers, maybe they can only go back to the city.When they were asked how far it was from Zmanilovka village, the two farmers took off their hats, and the farmer with the goatee had a quicker mind, so he asked back: "Maybe it is Manilovka, not Zmanilovka." Loveka?"

"Yes, Manilovka."

"Manilovka! Go a mile and turn right."

"Turn right?" asked the coachman. "Turn right, that's the way to Manilovka, there's no Zmanilovka. That village is called Manilovka; there's no Zmanilovka here. When you get there, you can see There is a two-story brick building, which is the master's house, that is to say, where the master lives. This is Manilovka. There is no Zmanilovka village in this area, and I have never heard of it. Pass."

(End of this chapter)