第75章

I replied, 'as I must be off to tell my friend, Anna Grigorievna, the news.' Nor did I lose a moment in ordering the koliaska. Yet when my coachman, Andrusha, asked me for directions I could not get a word out--I just stood staring at him like a fool, until I thought he must think me mad. Oh, Anna Grigorievna, if you but knew how upset I am!""What a strange affair!" commented the hostess. "What on earth can the man have meant by 'dead souls'? I confess that the words pass my understanding. Curiously enough, this is the second time I have heard speak of those souls. True, my husband avers that Nozdrev was lying;yet in his lies there seems to have been a grain of truth.""Well, just think of my state when I heard all this! 'And now,' apparently said Korobotchka to the Archpriest's wife, 'I am altogether at a loss what to do, for, throwing me fifteen roubles, the man forced me to sign a worthless paper--yes, me, an inexperienced, defenceless widow who knows nothing of business.' That such things should happen!

TRY and imagine my feelings!"

"In my opinion, there is in this more than the dead souls which meet the eye.""I think so too," agreed the other. As a matter of fact, her friend's remark had struck her with complete surprise, as well as filled her with curiosity to know what the word "more" might possibly signify. In fact, she felt driven to inquire: "What do YOU suppose to be hidden beneath it all?""No; tell me what YOU suppose?"

"What _I_ suppose? I am at a loss to conjecture.""Yes, but tell me what is in your mind?"

Upon this the visitor had to confess herself nonplussed; for, though capable of growing hysterical, she was incapable of propounding any rational theory. Consequently she felt the more that she needed tender comfort and advice.

"Then THIS is what I think about the dead souls," said the hostess.

Instantly the guest pricked up her ears (or, rather, they pricked themselves up) and straightened herself and became, somehow, more modish, and, despite her not inconsiderable weight, posed herself to look like a piece of thistledown floating on the breeze.

"The dead souls," began the hostess.

"Are what, are what?" inquired the guest in great excitement.

"Are, are--"

"Tell me, tell me, for heaven's sake!"

"They are an invention to conceal something else. The man's real object is, is--TO ABDUCT THE GOVERNOR'S DAUGHTER."So startling and unexpected was this conclusion that the guest sat reduced to a state of pale, petrified, genuine amazement.

"My God!" she cried, clapping her hands, "I should NEVER have guessed it!""Well, to tell you the truth, I guessed it as soon as ever you opened your mouth.""So much, then, for educating girls like the Governor's daughter at school! Just see what comes of it!""Yes, indeed! And they tell me that she says things which I hesitate even to repeat.""Truly it wrings one's heart to see to what lengths immorality has come.""Some of the men have quite lost their heads about her, but for my part I think her not worth noticing.""Of course. And her manners are unbearable. But what puzzles me most is how a travelled man like Chichikov could come to let himself in for such an affair. Surely he must have accomplices?""Yes; and I should say that one of those accomplices is Nozdrev.""Surely not?"

"CERTAINLY I should say so. Why, I have known him even try to sell his own father! At all events he staked him at cards.""Indeed? You interest me. I should never had thought him capable of such things.""I always guessed him to be so."

The two ladies were still discussing the matter with acumen and success when there walked into the room the Public Prosecutor--bushy eyebrows, motionless features, blinking eyes, and all. At once the ladies hastened to inform him of the events related, adducing therewith full details both as to the purchase of dead souls and as to the scheme to abduct the Governor's daughter; after which they departed in different directions, for the purpose of raising the rest of the town. For the execution of this undertaking not more than half an hour was required. So thoroughly did they succeed in throwing dust in the public's eyes that for a while every one--more especially the army of public officials--was placed in the position of a schoolboy who, while still asleep, has had a bag of pepper thrown in his face by a party of more early-rising comrades. The questions now to be debated resolved themselves into two--namely, the question of the dead souls and the question of the Governor's daughter. To this end two parties were formed--the men's party and the feminine section. The men's party--the more absolutely senseless of the two--devoted its attention to the dead souls: the women's party occupied itself exclusively with the alleged abduction of the Governor's daughter. And here it may be said (to the ladies' credit) that the women's party displayed far more method and caution than did its rival faction, probably because the function in life of its members had always been that of managing and administering a household. With the ladies, therefore, matters soon assumed vivid and definite shape; they became clearly and irrefutably materialised; they stood stripped of all doubt and other impedimenta.

Said some of the ladies in question, Chichikov had long been in love with the maiden, and the pair had kept tryst by the light of the moon, while the Governor would have given his consent (seeing that Chichikov was as rich as a Jew) but for the obstacle that Chichikov had deserted a wife already (how the worthy dames came to know that he was married remains a mystery), and the said deserted wife, pining with love for her faithless husband, had sent the Governor a letter of the most touching kind, so that Chichikov, on perceiving that the father and mother would never give their consent, had decided to abduct the girl.