"I do not want a mare either."
"For that mare, and the other grey horse you have seen in my stables, I'll only take three thousand roubles from you."
"But I do not want any horses."
"You may sell them. You are sure to get at any fair, or sale, more than three times their present value."
"Then it would be better for you to sell them yourself, if you are convinced you could get as much as three times their value."
"I am sure, I could make as much, but I wish you to derive that benefit."
Tchichikoff thanked him for the friendly intention, but obstinately refused either to have the grey mare, or the grey horse.
"Well then, will you buy some of my dogs? I'll sell you a pair with a skin as smooth as a thirty degrees frost! a spotted pair with moustachios, and upstanding hair like a pig's bristles, the roundness of their ribs is quite incomprehensible, their paws are swiftness itself, they scarcely touch the ground."
"Of what use could dogs be to me? I am not a sportsman."
"But I wish you to have some dogs. Very well, if you won't have any of my dogs, you ought to buy my organ, it is a most wonderful instrument; on my word of honour, it has cost, me more than one thousand five hundred roubles; but you shall have it for nine hundred."