Word spreads that Chichikov bought peasants for transfer; some citizens advise an armed escort, which he declines with tales of tractable souls. Gogol sketches the ladies of N., their refined phrases for nose-blowing, their wars over visiting cards, and their hunger for wealthy bachelors who might restore fal-lals the overtaxed peasant pays for. There he is engulfed in embraces until the Governor's wife presents her daughter, the golden-haired girl from the road collision. Dissatisfaction spreads among ladies he snubbed; verses at his expense circulate. The room hears the phrase; Chichikov's whist game collapses; he flees supper early and curses balls, bribes, and wives in fal-lals while blaming Nozdrev. Ladies refine Russian into French circumlocution so no one says perspire or spit. Millionaire rumour makes Chichikov marriage material; dress shops empty of unsold silks; a lady appears at Mass in a bustle that fills the church. He charms many women until the Governor's daughter appears; after that he is a poet briefly, then a boor, climbing over mazurka dancers to reach her side while she yawns at his anecdotes.
The side effect is better: rumour makes him neither more nor less than a millionaire, and the town likes him more than ever. An anonymous letter invites Chichikov to the wilds with turtle-dove verses; he rehearses expressions in the mirror for the Governor's ball, practicing bows, French murmurs, and surprised eyebrows until he approves his own face. He freezes, ignores every other woman, elbows the Commissioner of Taxes aside, and babbles travel stories while she yawns. Drunk Nozdrev arrives, shouts that Chichikov traffics in dead peasants, and laughs at three million roubles' worth before the Governor and Public Prosecutor. Gogol pauses to sketch N.'s officials: the President reciting Zhukovski, the Postmaster quoting mystic authors he cannot explain, husbands nicknamed Toby Jug and Pot Belly who grow hospitable after bread and salt. Chichikov rehearses dignity, humility, and surprise in the mirror, then enters the ball to a sea of embraces.
Nozdrev's roar links dead peasants to three million roubles; even skeptics wonder what commodity could sound so obscene. At the chapter's edge Korobotchka's britchka rattles into town, the widow worried she sold too cheaply after three sleepless nights. Gossip, romance, and past deals converge on the same secret: a man who bought respect with paper souls has been unmasked by the one guest who cannot keep a secret, while the one seller who still doubts the price is racing to town. The millionaire mask cracked in a single evening. What began as rumour of wealth ends as rumour of crime, and Chichikov's polished entrance becomes a stained exit before Korobotchka's cart even reaches the archpriest's wife with her fifteen-rouble grievance over souls sold at night.
Coming Up in Chapter 9
Korobotchka reaches town before breakfast, worried she was cheated on her dead souls. A lady in a plaid cloak is already racing her koliaska across the hospital facade, desperate to tell a bosom friend what the widow sold in the night..
