got to eat. As for the money, of course-- He thinks
that because a muzhik like him can go without food a
whole day others can too. The idea!

SERVANT. Well, all right. I'll tell him.

The Servant and Osip go out.



SCENE V


Khlestakov alone.

KHLESTAKOV. A bad business if he refuses to let me
have anything. I'm so hungry. I've never been so
hungry in my life. Shall I try to raise something
on my clothes? Shall I sell my trousers?
No, I'd rather starve than come home without a
St. Petersburg suit. It's a shame Joachim wouldn't
let me have a carriage on hire. It would have been great
to ride home in a carriage, drive up under the porte-cochere
of one of the neighbors with lamps lighted and
Osip behind in livery. Imagine the stir it would have
created. "Who is it? What's that?" Then my footman
walks in [draws himself up and imitates] and an-
nounces: "Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov of St.
Petersburg. Will you receive him?" Those country
lubbers don't even know what it means to "receive." If