Thus the whole fabric, and especially Chichikov, came crashing to the ground.

Particularly did our hero's agreeable face displease the new Director.

Why that was so it is impossible to say, but frequently, in cases of the kind, no reason exists.

However, the Director conceived a mortal dislike to him, and also extended that enmity to the whole of Chichikov's colleagues.

But inasmuch as the said Director was a military man, he was not fully acquainted with the myriad subtleties of the civilian mind; wherefore it was not long before, by dint of maintaining a discreet exterior, added to a faculty for humouring all and sundry, a fresh gang of tchinovniks succeeded in restoring him to mildness, and the General found himself in the hands of greater thieves than before, but thieves whom he did not even suspect, seeing that he believed himself to have selected men fit and proper, and even ventured to boast of possessing a keen eye for talent.