KHLESTAKOV. That's so. I admit I sometimes like to philosophize, too.
Sometimes it's prose, and sometimes it comes out poetry.

BOBCHINSKY [to Dobchinsky]. How true, how true it all is, Piotr
Ivanovich. His remarks are great. It's evident that he is an educated
man.

KHLESTAKOV. Would you tell me, please, if you have any amusements here,
any circles where one could have a game of cards?

GOVERNOR [aside]. Ahem! I know what you are aiming at, my boy.
[Aloud.] God forbid! Why, no one here has even heard of such a thing as
card-playing circles. I myself have never touched a card. I don't know
how to play. I can never look at cards with indifference, and if I
happen to see a king of diamonds or some such thing, I am so disgusted
I have to spit out. Once I made a house of cards for the children, and
then I dreamt of those confounded things the whole night. Heavens! How
can people waste their precious time over cards!

LUKA LUKICH [aside]. But he faroed me out of a hundred rubles yesterday,
the rascal.

GOVERNOR. I'd rather employ my time for the benefit of the state.

KHLESTAKOV. Oh, well, that's rather going too far. It all depends upon
the point of view. If, for instance, you pass when you have to treble
stakes, then of course--No, don't say that a game of cards isn't very
tempting sometimes.

SCENE VI

The above, Anna Andreyevna and Marya Antonovna.

GOVERNOR. Permit me to introduce my family, my wife and daughter.

KHLESTAKOV [bowing]. I am happy, madam, to have the pleasure of meeting
you.

ANNA. Our pleasure in meeting so distinguished a person is still
greater.

KHLESTAKOV [showing off]. Excuse me, madam, on the contrary, my pleasure
is the greater.

ANNA. Impossible. You condescend to say it to compliment me. Won't you
please sit down?

KHLESTAKOV. Just to stand near you is bliss. But if you insist, I will
sit down. I am so, so happy to be at your side at last.

ANNA. I beg your pardon, but I dare not take all the nice things you
say to myself. I suppose you must have found travelling very unpleasant
after living in the capital.

KHLESTAKOV. Extremely unpleasant. I am accustomed, comprenez-vous, to
life in the fashionable world, and suddenly to find myself on the road,
in dirty inns with dark rooms and rude people--I confess that if it
were not for this chance which--[giving Anna a look and showing off]
compensated me for everything--

ANNA. It must really have been extremely unpleasant