a man of short stature, in an old,
worn uniform, and recognised, not without terror, Akakiy Akakievitch.
The official's face was white as snow, and looked just like a corpse's.
But the horror of the important personage transcended all bounds when he
saw the dead man's mouth open, and, with a terrible odour of the grave,
gave vent to the following remarks: "Ah, here you are at last! I have
you, that--by the collar! I need your cloak; you took no trouble about
mine, but reprimanded me; so now give up your own."

The pallid prominent personage almost died of fright. Brave as he was in
the office and in the presence of inferiors generally, and although, at
the sight of his manly form and appearance, every one said, "Ugh! how
much character he had!" at this crisis, he, like many possessed of an
heroic exterior, experienced such terror, that, not without cause, he
began to fear an attack of illness. He flung his cloak hastily from his
shoulders and shouted to his coachman in an unnatural voice, "Home at
full speed!" The coachman, hearing the tone which is generally employed
at critical moments and even accompanied by something much more
tangible, drew his head down between his shoulders in case of an
emergency, flourished his whip, and flew on like an arrow. In a little
more than six minutes the prominent personage was at the entrance of his
own house. Pale, thoroughly scared, and cloakless, he went home instead
of to Karolina Ivanovna's, reached his room somehow or other, and passed
the night in the direst distress; so that the next morning over their
tea his daughter said, "You are very pale to-day, papa." But papa
remained silent, and said not a word to any one of what had happened to
him, where he had been, or where he had intended to go.

This occurrence made a deep impression upon him. He even began to say:
"How dare you? do you realise who stands before you?" less frequently
to the under-officials, and if he did utter the words, it was only after
having first learned the bearings of the matter. But the most noteworthy
point was, that from that day forward the apparition of the dead
tchinovnik ceased to be seen. Evidently the prominent personage's cloak
just fitted his shoulders; at all events, no more instances of his
dragging cloaks from people's shoulders were heard of. But many active
and apprehensive persons could by no means reassure themselves, and
asserted that the dead tchinovnik still showed himself in distan