Whilst a lively conversation continued to be carried on between the
parties assembled in the President's office, the witnesses began to
arrive one by one: among the earlier arrivals was a man already known
to our reader, the winking Procurator; he was immediately followed by
the Superintendant of the Medical Faculties, then came Truchatchevitch,
Beguschikin, and all those whom Sobakevitch had enumerated as uselessly
walking about on the face of the earth.
Many of them were total strangers to Tchichikoff, whilst the missing
witnesses were easily supplied from the ranks of the _employés_ in
the offices, in fact there was rather a superfluity of them, for not
only the son of the Proto-pope, Father Kyrila was present, but even
the worthy old man himself. Every one of the required witnesses now
began to sign their names on the various documents, not forgetting to
append their rank or title. As for each individual signature, it was
an original for itself as regards the execution of the letters which
formed the names, and certainly it would have been very difficult
indeed to find corresponding ones in the Russian alphabet.
The well-known individual, Ivan Antonovitch displayed considerable
activity, and in a very short time, all the contracts of sale were
duly booked and registered in the government ledger; according to
the regulations, an impost of a half per cent was calculated on the
whole, including the publication of the transaction in the "Ministerial
Gazetteer," and at the conclusion of the business, Tchichikoff found
that his expenses were but a mere trifle. The President even gave
instructions, that one half only of the half per cent impost duty
should be received from his friend; as for the other half, it was
carried to the account of some other indifferent petitioner.
"And now," said the President, when all the business was concluded,
"now, we shall only have to sprinkle a little wine and inaugurate your
excellent and important enterprise."
"I am agreeable," said Tchichikoff. "I leave it entirely to you to fix
upon the place and time. It would be sinful were I not to feel most
happy to be agreeable in turn to such estimable company as all those
around me; yes, gentlemen, now is the time to uncork a few or more
bottles of that excellent sparkling wine of our brothers in France."
"No, pardon me, you misunderstand the matter: for we will ourselves
provide the sparkling entertainment," said the President, "we feel
this to be an obligation, our duty. You are our guest; we are bound
to regale you. Do you know, gentlemen, what I will suggest to you;
whatever we do later, for the present I propose that we adjourn at once
and all, just as we are, to the house of our friend the Commissioner
of Police; he is a wonderful man amongst us; we need only give him a
slight hint and pass the fish-market or a wine-cellar, and you may
depend upon it that we shall make a luncheon equal to a feast! at the
same time I may observe that we shall have an excellent opportunity for
a nice game of whist or lansquenet."
Such a suggestion no one could possibly withstand. The witnesses felt
a voracious appetite at the mere mention of the fish, market; they all
rushed to take their hats and caps, and the sitting of the court was
adjourned. When they passed through the room in which Ivan Antonovitch,
the muggy-face, was sitting, he bowed politely, and whispered to
Tchichikoff:
"You have purchased serfs for nearly half-a-millions' worth, but
rewarded my troubles with a lonely twenty-fiver."
"But what serfs!" replied Tchichikoff to this, also in an undertone;
"really useless, worthless people, not worth half the money."
Ivan Antonovitch, hearing this, felt at once convinced that the
stranger was of a positive character and would give him no more.
"How much a-head did you pay for Pluschkin's serfs?" Sobakevitch
whispered into his other ear.
"And why have you put on the list that Vorobieff," said Tchichikoff, in
reply to his question.
"What Vorobieff?" demanded Sobakevitch.
"I mean the woman, Elizabeth Vorobieff, it seems as if you even took
some pains to pass her off as a man."
"I attempted nothing of the sort," said Sobakevitch, as he went to join
the other guests.
The guests proceeded all in a crowd towards the house of the
Commissioner of Police. The commander of the police-force of Smolensk,
was really and without flattery a wonderful man. Scarcely had he been
informed of what his friends expected from him, when he immediately
called one of his satellites, a fine and quick young fellow in shiny
boots, to whom He seemed to whisper but two words, and then added
aloud: "You understand me?" and thereupon, whilst the guests were
trying to spend a little while in the next room, in playing a game of
whist; the following dishes made their successive appearance upon the
table: three different kinds of sturgeon called respectively: osetra,
beluga, and sewruga, smoked and pickled salmon, fresh and preserved
caviar, some cheese, smoked ox-tongues, and a variety of other fish
dainties, made up the supplies from the fish-market.
Then were brought up additional supplies, furnished by the master of
the house from his own kitchen; a large pie, containing the head,
cartilage and jaws of a sturgeon that must have weighed more than three
hundred pounds, besides a variety of other minced tarts, baked in sweet
oils and butter.
The Commissioner of Police was in some respects considered as the
father and benefactor of the town. He was perfectly at home among
the majority of the citizens, and was accustomed to visit their
shops and the market-places as if they were his own warehouses. He
generally sat--as the phrase goes--in his right place, and did his duty
accordingly.
The majority of the tradesmen courted him particularly, because he was
not proud; and really, his condescension towards them was very great
indeed, when we take into consideration his exalted position; he stood
as godfather to all their children, and attended every one of their
evening parties, and though he made them pay heavy fines, whenever he
found an occasion, yet he did it so exceedingly cleverly, that they
could not feel angry with him for doing his duty: he would tap them in
a friendly manner, on the shoulder, and add a pleasant smile, treat
them with an excellent cup of tea at his own house, promise them to
call at their house of shop and play a game of draughts, inquire after
everybody and everything; ask them how they were satisfied with trade,
and in fact, take a lively interest in all their concerns.
If he should happen to hear that one or the other of the children had
caught a cold, or was otherwise indisposed, he would immediately attend
upon him personally, and suggest a variety of remedies to cure him,
in a word he was a clever man! If he happened to drive about in his
droschki, he was sure to make as many calls as he possibly could,.and
meanwhile drop a sly word to the one or to the other, and say:
"Now then, master Micheitch, I think it high time for us two to have a
hand at a game of cards, what do you say to that?"
"Yes, Ivan Alexeitch," answers Master Micheitch, good-humouredly,
whilst taking off his cap, "I think it a favourable opportunity for us
to have a game."
"Well, brother Elias Paramonitch, would you like to come and look at my
trotter? I am ready to run a race with your horse I saw the other day;
we will try them and have a trifling bet on them."
The merchant who was madly fond of race horses, but especially of
trotters, smiled at the proposal with an unusual gratification, and
whilst stroking his long beard he would say:
"Very well, Alexei Ivanovitch, we will try them!"
At such moments all idle bystanders would usually take off their caps
and smile with inward satisfaction at each other, and appear as if they
wished to say:
"Alexei Ivanovitch is an excellent, kind and good-hearted gentleman!"
In a word, he had succeeded in gaining universal esteem, and the
opinion of all the merchants who knew him was, that if Alexei
Ivanovitch once captivated a fellow, he never parted with him again.
The Commissioner of Police, when he perceived that the luncheon was
ready on the table, suggested to his guests that they should finish
their game of whist afterwards, and all entered that room from which
an agreeable and inviting perfume began to titillate the nostrils and
stomachs of the guests, and into which Sobakevitch had already for some
time been casting longing glances at an immense sturgeon which was
lying on a side table, upon a large dish.
The guests tasted as a relish to sharpen their appetite, a _liqueur_ of
that dark olive colour, which is only seen in Siberian precious stones,
and which are used in Russia for valuable ornaments only; having done
so they approached the table from all sides with fork in hand, and
began to display their choice of taste, or if we may say so, every one
his character and inclination, in attacking the one, the fresh caviar,
another, the large fish pie, a third, the cheese and so forth.
Sobakevitch left all the smaller dishes unnoticed, and betook himself
at once to the large dish with the sturgeon upon it, and whilst the
other guests were eating, talking and drinking, he had succeeded in the
short space of a quarter of an hour, and without any great exertions
in eating nearly the whole fish, so that when the Police-master
accidentally bethought himself of the fish, saying:
"By the bye, I wonder, gentlemen, how you will like this wonderful
production of nature?" and then approaching the dish with fork in hand
and followed by his guests, he found but the tail left of his wonderful
production of nature.
As for Sobakevitch, he feigned not to notice it, but taking up a plate
he coolly approached another dish with small fried fish upon it, and
used his fork to pick up a few of them, as if he had no real appetite.
After having thus quietly dispatched the sturgeon, Sobakevitch sat
himself down in an easy chair, and neither ate nor drank any more, but
like a cat, kept licking his lips and winking his eyes.