for you.

KHLESTAKOV. At this moment, however, I find it exceedingly pleasant,
madam.

ANNA. Oh, I cannot believe it. You do me much honor. I don't deserve it.

KHLESTAKOV. Why don't you deserve it? You do deserve it, madam.

ANNA. I live in a village.

KHLESTAKOV. Well, after all, a village too has something. It has its
hills and brooks. Of course it's not to be compared with St. Petersburg.
Ah, St. Petersburg! What a life, to be sure! Maybe you think I am only
a copying clerk. No, I am on a friendly footing with the chief of our
department. He slaps me on the back. "Come, brother," he says, "and have
dinner with me." I just drop in the office for a couple of minutes to
say this is to be done so, and that is to be done that way. There's a
rat of a clerk there for copying letters who does nothing but scribble
all the time--tr, tr--They even wanted to make me a college assessor,
but I think to myself, "What do I want it for?" And the doorkeeper flies
after me on the stairs with the shoe brush. "Allow me to shine your
boots for you, Ivan Aleksandrovich," he says. [To the Governor.] Why are
you standing, gentleman? Please sit down.

{GOVERNOR. Our rank is such that we can very
Together { well stand. {ARTEMY. We don't mind standing.
{LUKA. Please don't trouble.

KHLESTAKOV. Please sit down without the rank. [The Governor and the rest
sit down.] I don't like ceremony. On the contrary, I always like to slip
by unobserved. But it's impossible to conceal oneself, impossible. I
no sooner show myself in a place than they say, "There goes Ivan
Aleksandrovich!" Once I was even taken for the commander-in-chief.
The soldiers rushed out of the guard-house and saluted. Afterwards an
officer, an intimate acquaintance of mine, said to me: "Why, old chap,
we completely mistook you for the commander-in-chief."

ANNA. Well, I declare!

KHLESTAKOV. I know pretty actresses. I've written a number of
vaudevilles, you know. I frequently meet literary men. I am on an
intimate footing with Pushkin. I often say to him: "Well, Pushkin, old
boy, how goes it?" "So, so, partner," he'd reply, "as usual." He's a
great original.

ANNA. So you write too? How thrilling it must be to be an author! You
write for the papers also, I suppose?

KHLESTAKOV. Yes, for the papers, too. I am the author of a lot of
works--The Marriage of Figaro, Robert le Diable, Norma. I don't even
remember all the names. I did it just by ch