"Really!" Tchichikoff exclaimed, with evident interest; "and you believe that many of his serfs have died from want?"
"They die like flies."
"Do they really! But allow me to ask you, how far he lives from your estate?"
"About five wersts."
"About five wersts!" Tchichikoff exclaimed again, and even felt a perceptible pulsation of the heart. "But if I was to drive out of your court-yard, would it be on the right or on the left-hand side?"
"I would not advise you even to know the road to that dog's kennel!" said Sobakevitch. "It is more excusable to visit some forbidden place, than the house of such a man as Pluschkin."
"Oh no, I did not ask that for any particular purpose; but simply because I take an interest in knowing something about places and positions of every description," was the reply of Tchichikoff.
After the shoulder of mutton followed some flounders, of which each was considerably larger than the plates; then a turkey, nearly of the size of a young calf, stuffed with all kinds of good things—with eggs, rice, liver, and a variety of other condiments, which all had been pressed into the fowl's stomach.
With the turkey, the dinner had an end; but when they rose from the table, Tchichikoff felt heavier by at least half a hundredweight. They entered the reception-room, where some sweetmeats, such as pears, cherries, strawberries and other berries, preserved in sugar or honey, were displayed on small china plates; however, neither the guest nor the host could or would touch any. The lady hostess left the room for the purpose of displaying some other kind upon other small plates, in the hope that her guest would like to taste some of them. Profiting by her momentary absence, Tchichikoff turned towards Sobakevitch, who was lying in an arm-chair, and groaning after such a more than copious dinner, and allowing some indistinct sounds to escape from his mouth, using the one hand to make the sign of the cross, and holding the other before his mouth. Tchichikoff addressed him in the following words:
"I should have liked to speak to you about a certain little business."