| Yet for a day, for two days - nay, even for three - the suitor would wait in vain so far as any messengers with documents were concerned. Then he would repair to the office - to find that his business had not so much as been entered upon! Lastly, he would confront the "jewel beyond price." | Но ждет проситель день, другой -- не приносят дела на дом; на третий тоже. Он в канцелярию, -дело и не начиналось; он к драгоценному алмазу. |
| "Oh, pardon me, pardon me!" Chichikov would exclaim in the politest of tones as he seized and grasped the visitor's hands. "The truth is that we have SUCH a quantity of business on hand! But the matter shall be put through to-morrow, and in the meanwhile I am most sorry about it." | "Ах, извините!" говорил Чичиков очень учтиво, схвативши его за обе руки: "у нас было столько дел; но завтра же всё будет сделано, завтра непременно, право, мне даже совестно!" |
| And with this would go the most fascinating of gestures. | И всё это сопровождалось движениями обворожительными. |
| Yet neither on the morrow, nor on the day following, nor on the third would documents arrive at the suitor's abode. | Если при этом распахивалась как-нибудь пола халата, то рука в ту же минуту старалась дело поправить и придержать полу. |
| Upon that he would take thought as to whether something more ought not to have been done; and, sure enough, on his making inquiry, he would be informed that "something will have to be given to the copyists." | Но ни завтра, ни послезавтра, ни на третий день не несут дела на дом. Проситель берется за ум: "Да полно, нет ли чего?" Выведывает, говорят: нужно дать писарям. |
| "Well, there can be no harm in that," he would reply. "As a matter of fact, I have ready a tchetvertak 39 or two." | "Почему ж не дать? я готов четвертак, другой". -- |
| "Oh, no, no," the answer would come. "Not a tchetvertak per copyist, but a rouble, is the fee." | "Нет, не четвертак, а по беленькой". -- |
| "What? A rouble per copyist?" | "По беленькой писарям!" вскрикивает проситель. |
| "Certainly. What is there to grumble at in that? Of the money the copyists will receive a tchetvertak apiece, and the rest will go to the Government." | "Да чего вы так горячитесь", отвечают ему: "оно так и выйдет: писарям и достанется по четвертаку, а остальное пойдет по начальству". |
| Upon that the disillusioned suitor would fly out upon the new order of things brought about by the inquiry into illicit fees, and curse both the tchinovniks and their uppish, insolent behaviour. | Бьет себя по лбу недогадливый проситель и бранит на чем свет стоит новый порядок вещей, преследование взяток и вежливые, облагороженные обращения чиновников. |
| "Once upon a time," would the suitor lament, "one DID know what to do. Once one had tipped the Director a bank-note, one's affair was, so to speak, in the hat. But now one has to pay a rouble per copyist after waiting a week because otherwise it was impossible to guess how the wind might set! The devil fly away with all 'disinterested' and 'trustworthy' tchinovniks!" | "Прежде было знаешь, по крайней мере, что делать: принес правителю дел красную, да и дело в шляпе; а теперь по беленькой, да еще неделю провозишься, пока догадаешься; чорт бы побрал бескорыстие и чиновное благородство!" |
| And certainly the aggrieved suitor had reason to grumble, seeing that, now that bribe-takers had ceased to exist, and Directors had uniformly become men of honour and integrity, secretaries and clerks ought not with impunity to have continued their thievish ways. | Проситель, конечно, прав, но зато теперь нет взяточников: все правители дел честнейшие и благороднейшие люди, секретари только да писаря мошенники. |
