previous night's dinner and supper in the shape of crumbs strewn over the floor and tobacco ash on the tablecloth. The host himself, when he entered, was still clad in a dressing-gown exposing a hairy chest; and as he sat holding his pipe in his hand, and drinking tea from a cup, he would have made a model for the sort of painter who prefers to portray gentlemen of the less curled and scented order.
"What think you?" he asked of Chichikov after a short silence. "Are you willing now to play me for those souls?"
"I have told you that I never play cards. If the souls are for sale, I will buy them."
"I decline to sell them. Such would not be the course proper between friends. But a game of banker would be quite another matter. Let us deal the cards."
"I have told you that I decline to play."
"And you will not agree to an exchange?"
"No."
"Then look here. Suppose we play a game of chess. If you win, the souls shall be yours. There are a lot which I should like to see crossed off the revision list. Hi, Porphyri! Bring me the chessboard."
"You are wasting your time. I will play neither chess nor cards."
"But chess is different from playing with a bank. In chess there can be neither luck nor cheating, for everything depends upon skill. In fact, I warn you that I cannot possibly play with you unless you allow me a move or two in advance."
"The same with me," thought Chichikov. "Shall I, or shall I not, play this fellow? I used not to be a bad chess-player, and it is a sport in which he would find it more difficult to be up to his tricks."
"Very well," he added aloud. "I will play you at chess."
"And stake the souls for a hundred roubles?" asked Nozdrev.
"No. Why for a hundred? Would it not be sufficient to stake them for fifty?"
"No. What would be the use of fifty? Nevertheless, for the hundred roubles I will throw in a moderately old puppy, or else a gold seal and watch-chain."
"Very well," assented Chichikov.
"Then how many moves are you going to allow me?"
"Is that to be part of the bargain? Why, none, of course."
"At least allow me two."
"No, none. I myself am only a poor player."
