friends of good status, and as between friends who know how
to keep their own counsel." And, so saying, he looked his interlocutor
frankly and generously in the eyes.

Nevertheless Lienitsin's resourcefulness and acumen in business matters
failed to relieve his mind of a certain perplexity--and the less so
since he had contrived to become caught in his own net. Yet, in general,
he possessed neither a love for nor a talent for underhand dealings,
and, had not fate and circumstances favoured Chichikov by causing
Lienitsin's wife to enter the room at that moment, things might have
turned out very differently from what they did. Madame was a pale, thin,
insignificant-looking young lady, but none the less a lady who wore her
clothes a la St. Petersburg, and cultivated the society of persons who
were unimpeachably comme il faut. Behind her, borne in a nurse's arms,
came the first fruits of the love of husband and wife. Adopting his
most telling method of approach (the method accompanied with a sidelong
inclination of the head and a sort of hop), Chichikov hastened to greet
the lady from the metropolis, and then the baby. At first the latter
started to bellow disapproval, but the words "Agoo, agoo, my pet!" added
to a little cracking of the fingers and a sight of a beautiful seal on a
watch chain, enabled Chichikov to weedle the infant into his arms; after
which he fell to swinging it up and down until he had contrived to raise
a smile on its face--a circumstance which greatly delighted the parents,
and finally inclined the father in his visitor's favour. Suddenly,
however--whether from pleasure or from some other cause--the infant
misbehaved itself!

"My God!" cried Madame. "He has gone and spoilt your frockcoat!"

True enough, on glancing downwards, Chichikov saw that the sleeve of
his brand-new garment had indeed suffered a hurt. "If I could catch you
alone, you little devil," he muttered to himself, "I'd shoot you!"

Host, hostess and nurse all ran for eau-de-Cologne, and from three sides
set themselves to rub the spot affected.

"Never mind, never mind; it is nothing," said Chichikov as he strove to
communicate to his features as cheerful an expression as possible.
"What does it matter what a child may spoil during the golden age of its
infancy?"

To himself he remarked: "The little brute! Would it could be devoured by
wolves. It has made only too good a shot, the cussed young ragamuffin!"

How, after this--after