Dead Souls (27 page)

Such were the unfavourable comments which Chichikov passed upon balls
in general. With it all, however, there went a second source of
dissatisfaction. That is to say, his principal grudge was not so much
against balls as against the fact that at this particular one he had
been exposed, he had been made to disclose the circumstance that he
had been playing a strange, an ambiguous part. Of course, when he
reviewed the contretemps in the light of pure reason, he could not but
see that it mattered nothing, and that a few rude words were of no
account now that the chief point had been attained; yet man is an odd
creature, and Chichikov actually felt pained by the could-shouldering
administered to him by persons for whom he had not an atom of respect,
and whose vanity and love of display he had only that moment been
censuring. Still more, on viewing the matter clearly, he felt vexed to
think that he himself had been so largely the cause of the
catastrophe.

Yet he was not angry with HIMSELF—of that you may be sure, seeing
that all of us have a slight weakness for sparing our own faults, and
always do our best to find some fellow-creature upon whom to vent our
displeasure—whether that fellow-creature be a servant, a subordinate
official, or a wife. In the same way Chichikov sought a scapegoat upon
whose shoulders he could lay the blame for all that had annoyed him.
He found one in Nozdrev, and you may be sure that the scapegoat in
question received a good drubbing from every side, even as an
experienced captain or chief of police will give a knavish starosta or
postboy a rating not only in the terms become classical, but also in
such terms as the said captain or chief of police may invent for
himself. In short, Nozdrev's whole lineage was passed in review; and
many of its members in the ascending line fared badly in the process.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the town there was in progress an event
which was destined to augment still further the unpleasantness of our
hero's position. That is to say, through the outlying streets and
alleys of the town there was clattering a vehicle to which it would be
difficult precisely to assign a name, seeing that, though it was of a
species peculiar to itself, it most nearly resembled a large, rickety
water melon on wheels. Eventually this monstrosity drew up at the
gates of a house where the archpriest of one of the churches resided,
and from its doors there leapt a damsel clad in a jerkin and wearing a
scarf over her head. For a while she thumped the gates so vigorously
as to set all the dogs barking; then the gates stiffly opened, and
admitted this unwieldy phenomenon of the road. Lastly, the barinia
herself alighted, and stood revealed as Madame Korobotchka, widow of a
Collegiate Secretary! The reason of her sudden arrival was that she
had felt so uneasy about the possible outcome of Chichikov's whim,
that during the three nights following his departure she had been
unable to sleep a wink; whereafter, in spite of the fact that her
horses were not shod, she had set off for the town, in order to learn
at first hand how the dead souls were faring, and whether (which might
God forfend!) she had not sold them at something like a third of their
true value. The consequences of her venture the reader will learn from
a conversation between two ladies. We will reserve it for the ensuing
chapter.

Next morning, before the usual hour for paying calls, there tripped
from the portals of an orange-coloured wooden house with an attic
storey and a row of blue pillars a lady in an elegant plaid cloak.
With her came a footman in a many-caped greatcoat and a polished top
hat with a gold band. Hastily, but gracefully, the lady ascended the
steps let down from a koliaska which was standing before the entrance,
and as soon as she had done so the footman shut her in, put up the
steps again, and, catching hold of the strap behind the vehicle,
shouted to the coachman, "Right away!" The reason of all this was that
the lady was the possessor of a piece of intelligence that she was
burning to communicate to a fellow-creature. Every moment she kept
looking out of the carriage window, and perceiving, with almost
speechless vexation, that, as yet, she was but half-way on her
journey. The fronts of the houses appeared to her longer than usual,
and in particular did the front of the white stone hospital, with its
rows of narrow windows, seem interminable to a degree which at length
forced her to ejaculate: "Oh, the cursed building! Positively there is
no end to it!" Also, she twice adjured the coachman with the words,
"Go quicker, Andrusha! You are a horribly long time over the journey
this morning." But at length the goal was reached, and the koliaska
stopped before a one-storied wooden mansion, dark grey in colour, and
having white carvings over the windows, a tall wooden fence and narrow
garden in front of the latter, and a few meagre trees looming white
with an incongruous coating of road dust. In the windows of the
building were also a few flower pots and a parrot that kept
alternately dancing on the floor of its cage and hanging on to the
ring of the same with its beak. Also, in the sunshine before the door
two pet dogs were sleeping. Here there lived the lady's bosom friend.
As soon as the bosom friend in question learnt of the newcomer's
arrival, she ran down into the hall, and the two ladies kissed and
embraced one another. Then they adjourned to the drawing-room.

"How glad I am to see you!" said the bosom friend. "When I heard some
one arriving I wondered who could possibly be calling so early.
Parasha declared that it must be the Vice-Governor's wife, so, as I
did not want to be bored with her, I gave orders that I was to be
reported 'not at home.'"

For her part, the guest would have liked to have proceeded to business
by communicating her tidings, but a sudden exclamation from the
hostess imparted (temporarily) a new direction to the conversation.

"What a pretty chintz!" she cried, gazing at the other's gown.

"Yes, it IS pretty," agreed the visitor. "On the other hand,
Praskovia Thedorovna thinks that—"

In other words, the ladies proceeded to indulge in a conversation on
the subject of dress; and only after this had lasted for a
considerable while did the visitor let fall a remark which led her
entertainer to inquire:

"And how is the universal charmer?"

"My God!" replied the other. "There has been SUCH a business! In
fact, do you know why I am here at all?" And the visitor's breathing
became more hurried, and further words seemed to be hovering between
her lips like hawks preparing to stoop upon their prey. Only a person
of the unhumanity of a "true friend" would have had the heart to
interrupt her; but the hostess was just such a friend, and at once
interposed with:

"I wonder how any one can see anything in the man to praise or to
admire. For my own part, I think—and I would say the same thing
straight to his face—that he is a perfect rascal."

"Yes, but do listen to what I have got to tell you."

"Oh, I know that some people think him handsome," continued the
hostess, unmoved; "but
I
say that he is nothing of the kind—that,
in particular, his nose is perfectly odious."

"Yes, but let me finish what I was saying." The guest's tone was
almost piteous in its appeal.

"What is it, then?"

"You cannot imagine my state of mind! You see, this morning I received
a visit from Father Cyril's wife—the Archpriest's wife—you know
her, don't you? Well, whom do you suppose that fine gentleman visitor
of ours has turned out to be?"

"The man who has built the Archpriest a poultry-run?"

"Oh dear no! Had that been all, it would have been nothing. No. Listen
to what Father Cyril's wife had to tell me. She said that, last night,
a lady landowner named Madame Korobotchka arrived at the Archpriest's
house—arrived all pale and trembling—and told her, oh, such things!
They sound like a piece out of a book. That is to say, at dead of
night, just when every one had retired to rest, there came the most
dreadful knocking imaginable, and some one screamed out, 'Open the
gates, or we will break them down!' Just think! After this, how any
one can say that the man is charming I cannot imagine."

"Well, what of Madame Korobotchka? Is she a young woman or good
looking?"

"Oh dear no! Quite an old woman."

"Splendid indeed! So he is actually engaged to a person like that? One
may heartily commend the taste of our ladies for having fallen in love
with him!"

"Nevertheless, it is not as you suppose. Think, now! Armed with
weapons from head to foot, he called upon this old woman, and said:
'Sell me any souls of yours which have lately died.' Of course, Madame
Korobotchka answered, reasonably enough: 'I cannot sell you those
souls, seeing that they have departed this world;' but he replied:
'No, no! They are NOT dead. 'Tis I who tell you that—I who ought to
know the truth of the matter. I swear that they are still alive.' In
short, he made such a scene that the whole village came running to the
house, and children screamed, and men shouted, and no one could tell
what it was all about. The affair seemed to me so horrible, so utterly
horrible, that I trembled beyond belief as I listened to the story.
'My dearest madam,' said my maid, Mashka, 'pray look at yourself in
the mirror, and see how white you are.' 'But I have no time for that,'
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.
In other circles the matter was stated in a different way. That is to
say, this section averred that Chichikov did NOT possess a wife, but
that, as a man of subtlety and experience, he had bethought him of
obtaining the daughter's hand through the expedient of first tackling
the mother and carrying on with her an ardent liaison, and that,
thereafter, he had made an application for the desired hand, but that
the mother, fearing to commit a sin against religion, and feeling in
her heart certain gnawings of conscience, had returned a blank refusal
to Chichikov's request; whereupon Chichikov had decided to carry out
the abduction alleged. To the foregoing, of course, there became
appended various additional proofs and items of evidence, in
proportion as the sensation spread to more remote corners of the town.
At length, with these perfectings, the affair reached the ears of the
Governor's wife herself. Naturally, as the mother of a family, and as
the first lady in the town, and as a matron who had never before been
suspected of things of the kind, she was highly offended when she
heard the stories, and very justly so: with the result that her poor
young daughter, though innocent, had to endure about as unpleasant a
tete-a-tete as ever befell a maiden of sixteen, while, for his part,
the Swiss footman received orders never at any time to admit Chichikov
to the house.