dead peasants and thirty thousand! Take twenty-five.'
'Pavel Ivanovitch, I could mortgage it for twenty-five thousand: do you understand that? Then I should get twenty-five thousand and the estate would still be mine. I am selling it simply because I need money at once, and there would be a lot of delay over mortgaging it; I should have to pay the clerks, and I haven't the money to do it.'
'Oh well, but you might let me have it for twenty-five thousand!'
Platonov felt ashamed of Tchitchikov. 'Buy it, Pavel Ivanovitch,' he said. 'Any one would give that price for the estate. If you won't give thirty thousand for it my brother and I will club together and buy it.'
Tchitchikov was frightened. 'Very well,' he said, 'I will give thirty thousand. Here, I will give you a deposit of two thousand at once, eight thousand in a week's time, and the remaining twenty thousand in a month.'
'No, Pavel Ivanovitch, I only sell it on condition of receiving the money as soon as possible. Give me now fifteen thousand at least, and the rest not later than in a fortnight's time.'
'But I haven't got fifteen thousand! Ten thousand is all I have with me now. Let me get the money together.' This was a lie: he had twenty thousand.
'No, please, Pavel Ivanovitch! I tell you that
