This led Plushkin to conclude that his guest must be the kind of unconscionable fool who, while pretending to have been a member of the Civil Service, has in reality served in the army and run after actresses; wherefore the old man no longer disguised his delight, but called down blessings alike upon Chichikov's head and upon those of his children (he had never even inquired whether Chichikov possessed a family).

Next, he shuffled to the window, and, tapping one of its panes, shouted the name of "Proshka." Immediately some one ran quickly into the hall, and, after much stamping of feet, burst into the room.

This was Proshka--a thirteen-year-old youngster who was shod with boots of such dimensions as almost to engulf his legs as he walked.

The reason why he had entered thus shod was that Plushkin only kept one pair of boots for the whole of his domestic staff.

This universal pair was stationed in the hall of the mansion, so that any servant who was summoned to the house might don the said boots after wading barefooted through the mud of the courtyard, and enter the parlour dry-shod--subsequently leaving the boots where he had found them, and departing in his former barefooted condition.