sburg or Moscow!" said the
guest to himself. "Why, with a scale of living like this, he would be
ruined in three years." For that matter, Pietukh might well have been
ruined already, for hospitality can dissipate a fortune in three months
as easily as it can in three years.

The host also dispensed the wine with a lavish hand, and what the guests
did not drink he gave to his sons, who thus swallowed glass after glass.
Indeed, even before coming to table, it was possible to discern to what
department of human accomplishment their bent was turned. When the meal
was over, however, the guests had no mind for further drinking. Indeed,
it was all that they could do to drag themselves on to the balcony,
and there to relapse into easy chairs. Indeed, the moment that the host
subsided into his seat--it was large enough for four--he fell asleep,
and his portly presence, converting itself into a sort of blacksmith's
bellows, started to vent, through open mouth and distended nostrils,
such sounds as can have greeted the reader's ear but seldom--sounds as
of a drum being beaten in combination with the whistling of a flute and
the strident howling of a dog.

"Listen to him!" said Platon.

Chichikov smiled.

"Naturally, on such dinners as that," continued the other, "our host
does NOT find the time dull. And as soon as dinner is ended there can
ensue sleep."

"Yes, but, pardon me, I still fail to understand why you should find
life wearisome. There are so many resources against ennui!"

"As for instance?"

"For a young man, dancing, the playing of one or another musical
instrument, and--well, yes, marriage."

"Marriage to whom?"

"To some maiden who is both charming and rich. Are there none in these
parts?"

"No."

"Then, were I you, I should travel, and seek a maiden elsewhere." And a
brilliant idea therewith entered Chichikov's head. "This last resource,"
he added, "is the best of all resources against ennui."

"What resource are you speaking of?"

"Of travel."

"But whither?"

"Well, should it so please you, you might join me as my companion." This
said, the speaker added to himself as he eyed Platon: "Yes, that would
suit me exactly, for then I should have half my expenses paid, and could
charge him also with the cost of mending the koliaska."

"And whither should we go?"

"In that respect I am not wholly my own master, as I have business to do
for others as well as for myself. For instance, General Betrist