1 However, in spite of the distressfulness of the foregoing possibilities, it is time that I returned to my hero.
2 To that, however, our damp, cold hero gave not a thought, for all his mind was fixed upon bed.
3 Some of the names greatly astonished our hero, so, still more, did the surnames.
4 But in the present case the hero was a man of middle-age, and of cautious and frigid temperament.
5 A covert glance at Sobakevitch showed our hero that his host exactly resembled a moderate-sized bear.
6 Involuntarily our hero started and stared.
7 Meanwhile our hero was bowling along in high spirit.
8 That must be the hero of whom the Guards would have been so glad to get hold.
9 Yes, in spite of the responsibility of the Inferior Land Court, the speaker cast all thoughts of it to the winds as he hurried to greet our hero.
10 These comments I have interposed for the purpose of explaining to the reader why, as our hero conversed, the maiden began to yawn.
11 Simultaneously Nozdrev descried our hero and bore down upon him.
12 Naturally this unseemly contretemps had greatly upset our hero; for, however foolish be a madman's words, they may yet prove sufficient to sow doubt in the minds of saner individuals.
13 Meanwhile, at the other end of the town there was in progress an event which was destined to augment still further the unpleasantness of our hero's position.
14 "Those are my orders, and they must be obeyed," said the footman, confronting Chichikov with none of that politeness with which, on former occasions, he had hastened to divest our hero of his wrappings.
15 Disagreeably shocked, our hero hastened to raise the hood of the vehicle, to draw the curtains across the windows, and to lean back into a corner.