GOVERNOR [drawing himself up stiffly and shaking all over].
Have pity on me. Don't ruin me.
I have a wife and little children. Don't bring misfortune on a man.
KHLESTAKOV.
No, I won't go.
What's that got to do with me?
Must I go to jail because you have a wife and little children?
Great! [Bobchinsky looks in at the door and disappears in terror.] No, much obliged to you.
I will not go.
GOVERNOR [trembling].
It was my inexperience.
I swear to you, it was nothing but my inexperience and insufficient means.
Judge for yourself. The salary I get is not enough for tea and sugar.
And if I have taken bribes, they were mere trifles—something for the table, or a coat or two.
As for the officer's widow to whom they say I gave a beating, she's in business now, and it's a slander, it's a slander that I beat her.
Those scoundrels here invented the lie. They are ready to murder me. That's the kind of people they are.
KHLESTAKOV.
Well. I've nothing to do with them. [Reflecting.] I don't see, though, why you should talk to me about your scoundrels or officer's widow.
An officer's widow is quite a different matter.—But don't you dare to beat me. You can't do it to me—no, sir, you can't.
The idea! Look at him!
I'll pay, I'll pay the money. Just now I'm out of cash.
That's why I stay here—because I haven't a single kopek.
GOVERNOR [aside].
Oh, he's a shrewd one.
So that's what he's aiming at? He's raised such a cloud of dust you can't tell what direction he's going. Who can guess what he wants?
One doesn't know where to begin.
But I will try.
Come what may, I'll try—hit or miss. [Aloud.] H'm, if you really are in want of money, I'm ready to serve you.
It is my duty to assist strangers in town.
KHLESTAKOV.
Lend me some, lend me some.
Then I'll settle up immediately with the landlord.
I only want two hundred rubles. Even less would do.
GOVERNOR.
There's just two hundred rubles. [Giving him the money.] Don't bother to count it.
KHLESTAKOV [taking it].
Very much obliged to you.
I'll send it back to you as soon as I get home. I just suddenly found myself without—H'm—I see you are a gentleman.
Now it's all different.
GOVERNOR [aside].
Well, thank the Lord, he's taken the money.
Now I suppose things will move along smoothly.
I slipped four hundred instead of two into his hand.
KHLESTAKOV.
Ho, Osip! [Osip enters.] Tell the servant to come. [To the Governor and Dobchinsky.] Please be seated. [To Dobchinsky.] Please take a seat, I beg of you.
GOVERNOR.
Don't trouble. We can stand.
KHLESTAKOV.
But, please, please be seated.
I now see perfectly how open-hearted and generous you are. I confess I thought you had come to put me in—[To Dobchinsky.] Do take a chair.