not only real Cliquot, but a special sort of Cliquot—double-distilled Cliquot. And then I got one little bottle of a French wine called ‘Bonbon,’ with a perfume. Ah! roses and everything you like. But what a carouse we did have! After us came some prince or other, and he sent to the shop for champagne; but no, there wasn’t a single bottle left in the whole city, the officers had drunk it all up. Just think, I alone drank seventeen bottles in the course of the dinner.”

“Come, now, you can’t drink seventeen bottles,” remarked the fair-haired man.

“On the word of an honest man, I say that I did drink them,” replied Nozdreff.

“You can say what you like, but I assert that you cannot drink ten.”

“Come, will you bet that I can’t drink them?”

“What’s the use of betting?”

“Come, now, wager that gun which you bought in town.”

“No, I won’t.”

“Come, wager it, try it.”

“I don’t want to try it.”

“Yes, you would be left without a gun as you are left without a hat. Ah, friend Tchitchikoff, how sorry I am that you were not there. I know that you could not have parted from Kuvshinnikoff. How well you would have agreed with each other! He’s not at all like the procurator and all those government misers who tremble over every copeck. He can play at galbik, faro, or anything you wish. Ah, Tchitchikoff! Now, what would it have cost you to come? Truly, you are a dirty pig for not coming, a thorough lout. Kiss me, my soul; death, but I love you! Look, Mizhueff! fate has brought us together. Now, what is he to me, or what am I to him? He has come here, God knows whence, and we also have come here. But, I say, how many carriages there were, my friend, at the fair, and all on such a grand scale! I tried my luck at the wheel of fortune, and won two boxes of pomatum, a porcelain cup, and a guitar: then I staked once more, and gave the thing a twist, and lost more than six roubles, dash it! But I say, if you only knew what a wild fellow Kuvshinnikoff is! We went to nearly all the balls together. There was such a woman at one of them, with hardly anything on her back. She was nearly naked, and I thought to myself, ‘Devil take it!’ But Kuvshinnikoff—he’s such a brute!—he just seated himself beside her, and paid her such compliments in French. I assure you, he didn’t miss flirting with any of the women. That’s what he calls ‘making the most of the strawberries.’ By the way one dealer at the fair sold such wonderful fish and slices of dried sturgeon. I have brought some with me—lucky I thought of buying them while I still had some money left. But, I say, where are you going now?”

“To see a man I have to deal with,” said Tchitchikoff.

“Oh, dash the man! let him alone; come to my house.”

“Impossible, impossible! I have some business to transact with him.”

“Well, that’s a nice story to invent. Ah, you Opodeldok Ivanovitch, you’re deceiving us!”

“Really, I have some business to attend to, and very important business too.”

“I’ll bet that you are lying! Come, tell me to whose house you are going.”

“Well, then, to Sobakevitch’s.”