Consequently, although there is a possibility that in the--er--utterances which have just fallen from your lips there may lie something else concealed, it may equally be that--er--you have been pleased so to express yourself for the sake of the beauty of the terms wherein that expression found shape ?" "Oh, no," asserted Chichikov.

"I mean what I say and no more.

My reference to such of your pleasant souls as are dead was intended to be taken literally." Manilov still felt at a loss--though he was conscious that he MUST do something, he MUST propound some question.

But what question?
The devil alone knew! In the end he merely expelled some more tobacco smoke--this time from his nostrils as well as from his mouth.
"So," went on Chichikov, "if no obstacle stands in the way, we might as well proceed to the completion of the purchase." "What?
Of the purchase of the dead souls ?" "Of the 'dead' souls?
Oh dear no! Let us write them down as LIVING ones, seeing that that is how they figure in the census returns.

Never do I permit myself to step outside the civil law, great though has been the harm which that rule has wrought me in my career.