Each such witness appended to his signature a full list of his dignities and qualifications: one man in printed characters, another in a flowing hand, a third in topsy-turvy characters of a kind never before seen in the Russian alphabet, and so forth.

Meanwhile our friend Ivan Antonovitch comported himself with not a little address; and after the indentures had been signed, docketed, and registered, Chichikov found himself called upon to pay only the merest trifle in the way of Government percentage and fees for publishing the transaction in the Official Gazette.

The reason of this was that the President had given orders that only half the usual charges were to be exacted from the present purchaser--the remaining half being somehow debited to the account of another applicant for serf registration.
"And now," said Ivan Grigorievitch when all was completed, "we need only to wet the bargain." "For that too I am ready," said Chichikov.

"Do you but name the hour.
If, in return for your most agreeable company, I were not to set a few champagne corks flying, I should be indeed in default." "But we are not going to let you charge yourself with anything whatsoever.

WE must provide the champagne, for you are our guest, and it is for us--it is our duty, it is our bounden obligation--to entertain you.