I know Ivan Nikiforovitch very well, and am able to state that he never even had any intention of marrying.

Where do all these scandals originate?
In the same way it was rumoured that Ivan Nikiforovitch was born with a tail! But this invention is so clumsy and at the same time so horrible and indecent that I do not even consider it necessary to refute it for the benefit of civilised readers, to whom it is doubtless known that only witches, and very few even of these, have tails.

Witches, moreover, belong more to the feminine than to the masculine gender.
In spite of their great friendship, these rare friends are not always agreed between themselves.

Their characters can best be judged by comparing them.

Ivan Ivanovitch has the usual gift of speaking in an extremely pleasant manner.