"But how strangely business comes to me as a widow! Perhaps I had better wait a little longer, seeing that other buyers might come along, and I might be able to compare prices." "For shame, madam! For shame! Think what you are saying.

Who else, I would ask, would care to buy those souls?
What use could they be to any one ?" "If that is so, they might come in useful to ME," mused the old woman aloud; after which she sat staring at Chichikov with her mouth open and a face of nervous expectancy as to his possible rejoinder.
"Dead folk useful in a household!" he exclaimed.

"Why, what could you do with them?
Set them up on poles to frighten away the sparrows from your garden ?" "The Lord save us, but what things you say!" she ejaculated, crossing herself.
"Well, WHAT could you do with them?
By this time they are so much bones and earth.

That is all there is left of them.

Their transfer to myself would be ON PAPER only.