ants. Even the youngest of the servants is sixty,
but she calls them all 'young fellows,' and if a guest happens to offend
her during dinner, she orders them to leave him out when handing out the
dishes. THERE'S a woman for you!"

Platon laughed.

"And what may her family name be?" asked Chichikov. "And where does she
live?"

"She lives in the county town, and her name is Alexandra Ivanovna
Khanasarov."

"Then why do you not apply to her?" asked Platon earnestly. "It seems
to me that, once she realised the position of your family, she could not
possibly refuse you."

"Alas! nothing is to be looked for from that quarter," replied Khlobuev.
"My aunt is of a very stubborn disposition--a perfect stone of a woman.
Moreover, she has around her a sufficient band of favourites already.
In particular is there a fellow who is aiming for a Governorship, and
to that end has managed to insinuate himself into the circle of her
kinsfolk. By the way," the speaker added, turning to Platon, "would you
do me a favour? Next week I am giving a dinner to the associated guilds
of the town."

Platon stared. He had been unaware that both in our capitals and in
our provincial towns there exists a class of men whose lives are
an enigma--men who, though they will seem to have exhausted their
substance, and to have become enmeshed in debt, will suddenly be
reported as in funds, and on the point of giving a dinner! And though,
at this dinner, the guests will declare that the festival is bound to
be their host's last fling, and that for a certainty he will be haled to
prison on the morrow, ten years or more will elapse, and the rascal will
still be at liberty, even though, in the meanwhile, his debts will have
increased!

In the same way did the conduct of Khlobuev's menage afford a curious
phenomenon, for one day the house would be the scene of a solemn Te
Deum, performed by a priest in vestments, and the next of a stage play
performed by a troupe of French actors in theatrical costume. Again,
one day would see not a morsel of bread in the house, and the next day a
banquet and generous largesse given to a party of artists and sculptors.
During these seasons of scarcity (sufficiently severe to have led any
one but Khlobuev to seek suicide by hanging or shooting), the master of
the house would be preserved from rash action by his strongly religious
disposition, which, contriving in some curious way to conform with his
irregular mode of life,