hrough the expedient of wiping it
with my handkerchief," and so forth. Again, to say, "This glass, or
this plate, smells badly," was forbidden. No, not even a hint to such an
effect was to be dropped. Rather, the proper phrase, in such a case, was
"This glass, or this plate, is not behaving very well,"--or some such
formula.

In fact, to refine the Russian tongue the more thoroughly, something
like half the words in it were cut out: which circumstance necessitated
very frequent recourse to the tongue of France, since the same words, if
spoken in French, were another matter altogether, and one could use even
blunter ones than the ones originally objected to.

So much for the ladies of N., provided that one confines one's
observations to the surface; yet hardly need it be said that, should one
penetrate deeper than that, a great deal more would come to light. At
the same time, it is never a very safe proceeding to peer deeply into
the hearts of ladies; wherefore, restricting ourselves to the foregoing
superficialities, let us proceed further on our way.

Hitherto the ladies had paid Chichikov no particular attention, though
giving him full credit for his gentlemanly and urbane demeanour; but
from the moment that there arose rumours of his being a millionaire
other qualities of his began to be canvassed. Nevertheless, not ALL the
ladies were governed by interested motives, since it is due to the term
"millionaire" rather than to the character of the person who bears it,
that the mere sound of the word exercises upon rascals, upon decent
folk, and upon folk who are neither the one nor the other, an undeniable
influence. A millionaire suffers from the disadvantage of everywhere
having to behold meanness, including the sort of meanness which, though
not actually based upon calculations of self-interest, yet runs after
the wealthy man with smiles, and doffs his hat, and begs for invitations
to houses where the millionaire is known to be going to dine. That
a similar inclination to meanness seized upon the ladies of N. goes
without saying; with the result that many a drawing-room heard it
whispered that, if Chichikov was not exactly a beauty, at least he was
sufficiently good-looking to serve for a husband, though he could have
borne to have been a little more rotund and stout. To that there would
be added scornful references to lean husbands, and hints that they
resembled tooth-brushes rather than men--with many other femini