had a charm of a different kind. That is
to say, each evening there would take place in the village a singing of
songs and a weaving of country dances; and so shapely and buxom were the
maidens--maidens of a type hard to find in our present-day villages on
large estates--that he would stand for hours wondering which of them was
the best. White-necked and white-bosomed, all had great roving eyes, the
gait of peacocks, and hair reaching to the waist. And as, with his hands
clasping theirs, he glided hither and thither in the dance, or retired
backwards towards a wall with a row of other young fellows, and then,
with them, returned to meet the damsels--all singing in chorus (and
laughing as they sang it), "Boyars, show me my bridegroom!" and dusk was
falling gently, and from the other side of the river there kept coming
far, faint, plaintive echoes of the melody--well, then our Selifan
hardly knew whether he were standing upon his head or his heels. Later,
when sleeping and when waking, both at noon and at twilight, he would
seem still to be holding a pair of white hands, and moving in the dance.

Chichikov's horses also found nothing of which to disapprove. Yes,
both the bay, the Assessor, and the skewbald accounted residence at
Tientietnikov's a most comfortable affair, and voted the oats excellent,
and the arrangement of the stables beyond all cavil. True, on this
occasion each horse had a stall to himself; yet, by looking over the
intervening partition, it was possible always to see one's fellows, and,
should a neighbour take it into his head to utter a neigh, to answer it
at once.

As for the errand which had hitherto led Chichikov to travel about
Russia, he had now decided to move very cautiously and secretly in the
matter. In fact, on noticing that Tientietnikov went in absorbedly for
reading and for talking philosophy, the visitor said to himself, "No--I
had better begin at the other end," and proceeded first to feel his way
among the servants of the establishment. From them he learnt several
things, and, in particular, that the barin had been wont to go and
call upon a certain General in the neighbourhood, and that the General
possessed a daughter, and that she and Tientietnikov had had an affair
of some sort, but that the pair had subsequently parted, and gone
their several ways. For that matter, Chichikov himself had noticed
that Tientietnikov was in the habit of drawing heads of which each
representation exact