“Pray do not object; I beg that you will enter,” rejoined Tchitchikoff.

“No, excuse me. I will not permit such a pleasant and accomplished guest to walk behind me.”

“Why accomplished? Please go in.”

“Well, then, please pass in yourself.”

“But why?”

“Well, because,” said Maniloff, with a pleasant smile.

Finally the two friends passed through the doorway side by side, crowding each other a little in the process.

“Allow me to present my wife to you,” said Maniloff. “My love, Pavel Ivanovitch.”

Then Tchitchikoff saw a lady, whom he had not yet even noticed, saluting him and Maniloff. She was pretty, and becomingly dressed. Her loose gown of pale silk suited her well. With one of her small, delicate hands she hastily flung something on the table, and then, clasping a cambric handkerchief with embroidered corners, she rose from the divan on which she was seated. Tchitchikoff approached to kiss her hand. Mrs. Manilova, with rather a strong roll on her r’s, declared that he had greatly delighted them by his arrival, and that her husband never let a day pass by without mentioning him.

“Yes,” added Maniloff, “she has got into the habit of asking me, ‘Why does not your friend come?’ ‘Wait, my love,’ I say, ‘he will come.’ And now he has at length favoured us with a visit. Truly, he has afforded us the same pleasure as one feels in May, on the anniversary of the heart.”

Tchitchikoff became a little embarrassed when he heard that affairs had already got as far as the anniversary of the heart, and he modestly replied that he possessed neither a great name nor any distinguished rank.

“You have everything,” broke in Maniloff with the same pleasant smile; “you have all that, and even more.”

“How did our town strike you?” added Mrs. Manilova. “Did you pass the time pleasantly there?”

“It is a very fine town, a very beautiful town,” replied Tchitchikoff, “and I spent the time most agreeably; the society there is very friendly.”

“And how did you like our governor?” asked Mrs. Manilova.

“He is a very dignified and amiable person, is he not?” added Maniloff.

“Quite true,” said Tchitchikoff; “a most worthy man. And how he enters into his duties! how well he understands them! It would be well if there were a few more such men.”

“Yes, how well he understands the way to receive people, and behave discreetly and courteously!” chimed in Maniloff, with a smile, and almost closing his eyes with pleasure, like a cat whom one is tickling gently behind the ears with one’s finger.

“He is a very sociable and agreeable man,” continued Tchitchikoff; “and what an artist! I should never even have imagined such a thing! How well he embroiders! He gave me a purse of his workmanship; even a lady who can embroider so tastefully is seldom seen.”

“And the vice-governor—what a nice man he is, is he not?” said Maniloff, again drawing his eyelids down a little.

“A very, very worthy man,” replied Tchitchikoff.