rd is about to put his
lodger in prison for debt, when these men jump to the
conclusion that he is the Inspector. The Prefect and other
terrified officials accept the suggestion, in spite of his
plain statement as to his identity. They set about making the
town presentable, entertain and bribe him, and bow down to
him. He accepts their hospitality, asks loans, makes love to
the Prefect's silly wife and daughter, betroths himself to
the latter, receives the petitions and bribes of the
oppressed townspeople,--and drives off with the best
post-horses the town can furnish, ostensibly to ask the
blessing of his rich old uncle on his marriage. The
Postmaster intercepts a letter which he has written to a
friend. Its revelations, and the ridicule which he therein
casts on his hosts, open their eyes at last. At that moment a
gendarme appears and announces that the Inspector has
arrived. Tableau.]

Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,'
by Isabel F. Hapgood

OLD-FASHIONED GENTRY

From 'Mirgorod'

I am very fond of the modest life of those isolated owners of remote
estates which are generally called "old-fashioned" in Little Russia, and
which, like ruinous and picturesque houses, are beautiful through their
simplicity and complete contrast to a new and regular building whose
walls have never yet been washed by the rain, whose roof has not yet
been overgrown with moss, and whose porch, still possessed of its
stucco, does not yet display its red bricks. I can still see the
low-roofed little house, with its veranda of slender, blackened wooden
columns, surrounding it on all sides, so that in case of a thunder-storm
or a hail-storm you could close the window shutters without getting wet;
behind it fragrant wild-cherry trees, row upon row of dwarf fruit-trees,
overtopped by crimson cherries and a purple sea of plums, covered with a
lead-colored bloom, luxuriant maples under whose shade rugs were spread
for repose; in front of the house the spacious yard, with short fresh
grass, through which paths had been worn from the storehouses to the
kitchen, from the kitchen to the apartments of the family; a long-necked
goose drinking water with her young goslings, soft as down; the picket
fence festooned with bunches of dried apples and pears, and rugs hung
out to air; a cart-load of melons standing near the store-