Here a deep sigh was also allowed to escape from his broad chest, and it seemed as if this sigh was full of the warm effusions of his feeling heart; not without some feeling and expression in his language Tchichikoff, continued in the following words:
"If you knew, my dear Sir, what a favour you have granted me by this apparently trifling obligation.... to me, a man without name or fame.... Yes, truly, how much have I not suffered? like a bark amidst the boisterous waves of the agitated ocean.... What tribulations, what persecutions have I not experienced, and how many and bitter were the sorrows that I have tasted! but why? would you perhaps ask me? Because I always watched over truth, because I kept my conscience pure, my honour intact; because I stretched forth my hand to assist the mourning widow, and shielded the deserted orphan!"
Hereupon Tchichikoff could not help arresting the progress of a falling tear with his pocket-handkerchief.
Maniloff, too, was nearly moved to tears on hearing this eloquent language. Both friends pressed each other's hands long and warmly, and they looked long and silently into each other's eyes, in which a few more tears might have been seen glittering. Maniloff seemed not disposed to part with the hand of our hero, and continued to press it so warmly, that the other did not know how to liberate it. At last he succeeded in extricating it gently, and said that it would now be a good thing to conclude the contract of sale at once, and that it would be desirable that Maniloff should come for that purpose to town at his earliest convenience. He then rose, took his hat, and began to bow a farewell.
"What? are you going to leave us already?" said Maniloff, who had scarcely recovered from his emotion before he was frightened again.
At that moment, Madame Maniloff entered her husband's study.
"Lisinka," Maniloff exclaimed, with a rather pitiable expression in voice and countenance, "Pavel Ivanovitch wishes to leave us!"
"Because, perhaps, we do not entertain our guest well enough," remarked Madame Maniloff.
"My lady, here," said Tchichikoff, "here, in this spot," saying these words, he laid his hand upon his heart, and continued: "Yes, here shall for ever remain the recollection of the pleasant moments I have passed in your company; and believe me, there would be no greater felicity for me in this world, than to live—if not in the same house with you, at least in your immediate neighbourhood."
"Ah! my dear Pavel Ivanovitch," said Maniloff, whom this idea on the part of his friend seemed rather to please, "that would really be excellent, delicious, if we could live together under the same roof, or under the shadow of the same poplar, and philosophise on some subject, or launch ourselves into—"