erve you. It is my duty to
assist strangers in town.

KHLESTAKOV. Lend me some, lend me some. Then I'll settle up immediately
with the landlord. I only want two hundred rubles. Even less would do.

GOVERNOR. There's just two hundred rubles. [Giving him the money.] Don't
bother to count it.

KHLESTAKOV [taking it]. Very much obliged to you. I'll send it back to
you as soon as I get home. I just suddenly found myself without--H'm--I
see you are a gentleman. Now it's all different.

GOVERNOR [aside]. Well, thank the Lord, he's taken the money. Now I
suppose things will move along smoothly. I slipped four hundred instead
of two into his hand.

KHLESTAKOV. Ho, Osip! [Osip enters.] Tell the servant to come. [To the
Governor and Dobchinsky.] Please be seated. [To Dobchinsky.] Please take
a seat, I beg of you.

GOVERNOR. Don't trouble. We can stand.

KHLESTAKOV. But, please, please be seated. I now see perfectly how
open-hearted and generous you are. I confess I thought you had come to
put me in--[To Dobchinsky.] Do take a chair.

The Governor and Dobchinsky sit down. Bobchinsky looks in at the door
and listens.

GOVERNOR [aside]. I must be bolder. He wants us to pretend he is
incognito. Very well, we will talk nonsense, too. We'll pretend we
haven't the least idea who he is. [Aloud.] I was going about in the
performance of my duty with Piotr Ivanovich Dobchinsky here--he's a
landed proprietor here--and we came to the inn to see whether the guests
are properly accommodated--because I'm not like other governors, who
don't care about anything. No, apart from my duty, out of pure Christian
philanthropy, I wish every mortal to be decently treated. And as if
to reward me for my pains, chance has afforded me this pleasant
acquaintance.

KHLESTAKOV. I, too, am delighted. Without your aid, I confess, I should
have had to stay here a long time. I didn't know how in the world to pay
my bill.

GOVERNOR [aside]. Oh, yes, fib on.--Didn't know how to pay his bill! May
I ask where your Honor is going?

KHLESTAKOV. I'm going to my own village in the Government of Saratov.

GOVERNOR [aside, with an ironical expression on his face]. The
Government of Saratov! H'm, h'm! And doesn't even blush! One must be
on the qui vive with this fellow. [Aloud.] You have undertaken a great
task. They say travelling is disagreeable because of the delay in
getting horses but, on the other hand, it is a diversion. You are
travelling for your own