Two or three months more of hunger and Akakiy Akakievitch had accumulated about eighty rubles.

His heart, generally so quiet, began to throb.

On the first possible day, he went shopping in company with Petrovitch.

They bought some very good cloth, and at a reasonable rate too, for they had been considering the matter for six months, and rarely let a month pass without their visiting the shops to inquire prices.

Petrovitch himself said that no better cloth could be had.