Whilst a lively conversation continued to be carried on between the parties assembled in the President\'s office, the witnesses began to arrive one by one: among the earlier arrivals was a man already known to our reader, the winking Procurator; he was immediately followed by the Superintendant of the Medical Faculties, then came Truchatchevitch, Beguschikin, and all those whom Sobakevitch had enumerated as uselessly walking about on the face of the earth.

Many of them were total strangers to Tchichikoff, whilst the missing witnesses were easily supplied from the ranks of the employés in the offices, in fact there was rather a superfluity of them, for not only the son of the Proto-pope, Father Kyrila was present, but even the worthy old man himself. Every one of the required witnesses now began to sign their names on the various documents, not forgetting to append their rank or title. As for each individual signature, it was an original for itself as regards the execution of the letters which formed the names, and certainly it would have been very difficult indeed to find corresponding ones in the Russian alphabet.

The well-known individual, Ivan Antonovitch displayed considerable activity, and in a very short time, all the contracts of sale were duly booked and registered in the government ledger; according to the regulations, an impost of a half per cent was calculated on the whole, including the publication of the transaction in the "Ministerial Gazetteer," and at the conclusion of the business, Tchichikoff found that his expenses were but a mere trifle. The President even gave instructions, that one half only of the half per cent impost duty should be received from his friend; as for the other half, it was carried to the account of some other indifferent petitioner.

"And now," said the President, when all the business was concluded, "now, we shall only have to sprinkle a little wine and inaugurate your excellent and important enterprise."

"I am agreeable," said Tchichikoff. "I leave it entirely to you to fix upon the place and time. It would be sinful were I not to feel most happy to be agreeable in turn to such estimable company as all those around me; yes, gentlemen, now is the time to uncork a few or more bottles of that excellent sparkling wine of our brothers in France."

"No, pardon me, you misunderstand the matter: for we will ourselves provide the sparkling entertainment," said the President, "we feel this to be an obligation, our duty. You are our guest; we are bound to regale you. Do you know, gentlemen, what I will suggest to you; whatever we do later, for the present I propose that we adjourn at once and all, just as we are, to the house of our friend the Commissioner of Police; he is a wonderful man amongst us; we need only give him a slight hint and pass the fish-market or a wine-cellar, and you may depend upon it that we shall make a luncheon equal to a feast! at the same time I may observe that we shall have an excellent opportunity for a nice game of whist or lansquenet."

Such a suggestion no one could possibly withstand. The witnesses felt a voracious appetite at the mere mention of the fish, market; they all rushed to take their hats and caps, and the sitting of the court was adjourned. When they passed through the room in which Ivan Antonovitch, the muggy-face, was sitting, he bowed politely, and whispered to Tchichikoff:

"You have purchased serfs for nearly half-a-millions\' worth, but rewarded my troubles with a lonely twenty-fiver."

"But what serfs!" replied Tchichikoff to this, also in an undertone; "really useless, worthless people, not worth half the money."

Ivan Antonovitch, hearing this, felt at once convinced that the stranger was of a positive character and would give him no more.

"How much a-head did you pay for Pluschkin\'s serfs?" Sobakevitch whispered into his other ear.

"And why have you put on the list that Vorobieff," said Tchichikoff, in reply to his question.

"What Vorobieff?" demanded Sobakevitch.

"I mean the woman, Elizabeth Vorobieff, it seems as if you even took some pains to pass her off as a man."

"I attempted nothing of the sort," said Sobakevitch, as he went to join the other guests.

The guests proceeded all in a crowd towards the house of the Commissioner of Police. The commander of the police-force of Smolensk, was really and without flattery a wonderful man. Scarcely had he been informed of what his friends expected from him, when he immediately called one of his satellites, a fine and quick young fellow in shiny boots, to whom He seemed to whisper but two words, and then added aloud: "You understand me?" and thereupon, whilst the guests were trying to spend a little while in the next room, in playing a game of whist; the following dishes made their successive appearance upon the table: three different kinds of sturgeon called respectively: osetra, beluga, and sewruga, smoked and pickled salmon, fresh and preserved caviar, some cheese, smoked ox-tongues, and a varie............