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| As Chichikov approached the courtyard of the mansion he caught sight of his host (clad in a green frock coat) standing on the verandah and pressing one hand to his eyes to shield them from the sun and so get a better view of the approaching carriage. | Подъезжая ко двору, Чичиков заметил на крыльце самого хозяина, который стоял в зеленом шалоновом сюртуке, приставив руку ко лбу в виде зонтика над глазами, чтобы рассмотреть получше подъезжавший экипаж. |
| In proportion as the britchka drew nearer and nearer to the verandah, the host's eyes assumed a more and more delighted expression, and his smile a broader and broader sweep. | По мере того как бричка близилась к крыльцу, глаза его делались веселее и улыбка раздвигалась более и более. |
| "Paul Ivanovitch!" he exclaimed when at length Chichikov leapt from the vehicle. | "Павел Иванович!" вскричал он наконец, когда Чичиков вылезал из брички. |
| "Never should I have believed that you would have remembered us!" | "Насилу вы таки нас вспомнили!" |
| The two friends exchanged hearty embraces, and Manilov then conducted his guest to the drawing-room. | Оба приятеля очень крепко поцеловались, и Манилов увел своего гостя в комнату. |
| During the brief time that they are traversing the hall, the anteroom, and the dining-room, let me try to say something concerning the master of the house. | Хотя время, в продолжение которого они будут проходить сени, переднюю и столовую, несколько коротковато, но попробуем, не успеем ли как-нибудь им воспользоваться и сказать кое-что о хозяине дома. |
| But such an undertaking bristles with difficulties - it promises to be a far less easy task than the depicting of some outstanding personality which calls but for a wholesale dashing of colours upon the canvas - the colours of a pair of dark, burning eyes, a pair of dark, beetling brows, a forehead seamed with wrinkles, a black, or a fiery-red, cloak thrown backwards over the shoulder, and so forth, and so forth. Yet, so numerous are Russian serf owners that, though careful scrutiny reveals to one's sight a quantity of outre peculiarities, they are, as a class, exceedingly difficult to portray, and one needs to strain one's faculties to the utmost before it becomes possible to pick out their variously subtle, their almost invisible, features. In short, one needs, before doing this, to carry out a prolonged probing with the aid of an insight sharpened in the acute school of research. |
