“Oh heavens!” exclaimed Lyenitzuin’s wife: “he has completely ruined your coat.”

Tchitchikoff looked. The sleeve of his coat, which was quite new, was utterly spoiled. “I’d like to shoot you, you little devil!” he said to himself in his wrath.

The host, the hostess, and the nurse all ran for some eau-de-Cologne, and began to scrub the sleeve in all directions.

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing, it’s of no consequence whatever,” said Tchitchikoff, endeavouring to communicate as cheerful an expression as possible to his countenance. “Is it possible for a child to spoil anything at this golden period of his existence?” he repeated; and, at the same time, he said to himself, “You little brute! I wish the wolves had eaten you: that would suit me to a hair, you cursed little rascal!”

This apparently trifling circumstance made the host take a favourable view of Tchitchikoff’s business. How could he refuse anything to a guest who had bestowed so many innocent caresses on the baby, and who had so magnanimously paid for them at the cost of his own coat!

“Permit me, then, to repay your service,” said our hero, “with another one. I wish to act as mediator in your affair with the Platonoff brothers. You want some land, do you not?”

Then Tchitchikoff entered into a long explanation as regards the strip of soil which Lyenitzuin had appropriated, and he prevailed upon him to restore it to the Platonoffs in exchange for some other land. This matter being settled, Tchitchikoff took leave of Lyenitzuin and returned to make his report to Vasiliy. With his usual tactics, moreover, he prevailed upon the latter to sell him some dead souls; and then, Platonoff having fallen ill, so that he could not resume his travels, our hero set off alone, his friend Tentyotnikoff having in the meanwhile sent him his britchka, which had been left with General Betrishtcheff.

Upon reaching the town he made various arrangements respecting the purchase of Khlobuyoff’s estate. However, in lieu of giving another fifteen thousand roubles in cash, he displayed a variety of deeds which seemed to indicate that he possessed large means. He wished to realise, he said, and accordingly, offered his bill at four months’ date to Khlobuyoff, who at first demurred to the proposal, declaring that he required ready money. However, as all the persons summoned to serve as witnesses to the deed of sale, and the officials also, spoke in Pavel Ivanovitch’s favour, Khlobuyoff feared lest he might appear unreasonable, and finally he accepted the promissory note and signed the deed of sale as if he had received full payment.

Meanwhile Tchitchikoff had secured, through Lyenitzuin, an introduction to Alexandra Ivanovna, the wealthy aunt, and he so ingratiated himself in her favour that at last she could do nothing without consulting him. Still he failed in his efforts to persuade her to make a new will. Three months, moreover, went by without Khlobuyoff being paid and without Tchitchikoff showing any disposition to raise a loan in view of meeting his promissory note. Then suddenly a report was circulated that Pavel Ivanovitch was negotiating the secret sale of the estate, and people were puzzled as to what game he could be playing. A traveller who, on passing through the city, dined one day with the colonel of police, remarked to him in the course of conversation, “I hear that the famous Tchitchikoff is staying here. You are aware, I suppose, that he is journeying through Russia, buying up all the landowners’ dead serfs, with an object one can readily guess.” This remark was repeated on all sides, and it finally reached the ears of the military governor, just at the time, too, when the latter heard that Alexandra Ivanovna, the wealthy lady, had died, and that seals had been affixed in her house to all the articles of furniture in which she might have secreted either any valuables or a will. People pretended that the old lady’s demise had only been reported forty- eight hours after its occurrence; and, moreover, it was insinuated that our hero alone could tell in what manner she had died, as he had been hovering around her till the very last, ordering the servants about as if they had been his own.

Similar remarks are very often made when wealthy people die; still, the military governor, without believing in a crime, considered that the reports which had reached his ears warranted his summoning Tchitchikoff