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SOFA COMPANY : the street, when suddenly a splendidly-matched team of three posting- horses flew noisily round the corner and drew up sharply at the gates before Sitnikov's house. In the smart little sportsman's trap sat Prince N----; beside him Hlopakov. Baklaga was driving ... and how he drove! He could have driven them through an earring, the rascal! The bay trace-horses, little, keen, black-eyed, black-legged beasts, were all impatience; they kept rearing--a whistle, and off they would have bolted! The dark-bay shaft-horse stood firmly, its neck arched like a swan's, its breast forward, its legs like arrows, shaking its sofa company and proudly blinking.... They were splendid! No one could desire a finer turn out for an Easter procession! 'Your excellency, sofa company to come in!' cried Sitnikov. The prince leaped out of the trap. Hlopakov slowly descended on the
SOFA COMPANY : other side. 'Good morning, friend ... any horses.' 'You may be sure we've horses for sofa company excellency! Pray walk in.... Petya, bring out Peacock! and let them get Favourite ready too. And with you, sir,' he went on, turning to me, 'we'll settle matters another time.... Fomka, a bench for his excellency.' From a special stable which I had not at first observed they sofa company out Peacock. A powerful dark sorrel horse seemed to fly across the yard with all its legs in the air. Sitnikov even turned away his head and winked. 'Oh, rrakalion!' piped Hlopakov; 'Zhaymsah (_j'aime ça_.)' The prince laughed. Peacock was stopped with difficulty; he dragged the stable-boy about the yard; at last he was pushed against the wall. He snorted, started and reared, while Sitnikov still teased him, brandishing a whip at him.
SOFA COMPANY : 'What are you looking at? there! oo!' said the horsedealer with caressing menace, unable to refrain from sofa company his horse himself. 'How much?' asked the prince. 'For your excellency, five thousand.' 'Three.' 'Impossible, your excellency, upon my word.' 'I tell you three, rrakalion,' put in Hlopakov. I went away without staying to see the end of the bargaining. At the farthest corner of the street I noticed a large sheet of paper fixed on the gate of a little grey house. At the top there was a pen-and-ink sketch of a horse with a tail of the sofa company of a pipe and an endless neck, and below his hoofs were the following words, written in an old- fashioned hand: 'Here are for sale horses of various colours, brought to the Lebedyan
SOFA COMPANY : fair from the celebrated steppes stud of Anastasei Ivanitch Tchornobai, landowner of Tambov. These horses are of excellent sort; broken in to sofa company and free from vice. Purchasers will kindly ask for Anastasei Ivanitch himself: should Anastasei Ivanitch be sofa company then ask for Nazar Kubishkin, the coachman. Gentlemen about to purchase, kindly honour an old man.' I stopped. 'Come,' I thought, 'let's have a look at the horses of the celebrated steppes breeder, Mr. Tchornobai.' I was about to go in at the gate, but found that, contrary to the common usage, it was locked. I knocked. 'Who's there?... A customer?' whined a woman's voice. 'Yes.' 'Coming, sir, coming.' The gate was opened. I beheld a peasant-woman of fifty, bareheaded, in boots, and a sheepskin worn open. 'Please to come in, kind sir, and I'll go at once, and tell Anastasei
SOFA COMPANY : Ivanitch ... Nazar, hey, Nazar!' 'What?' mumbled an old man's voice from the stable. 'Get a horse ready; here's a customer.' The old woman ran into the house. 'A customer, a customer,' Nazar grumbled in response; 'I've not washed all their tails yet.' 'Oh, Arcadia!' thought I. 'Good day, sir, sofa company to see you,' I heard a rich, pleasant voice saying behind my back. I looked round; before me, in a long-skirted blue coat, stood an old man of medium height, with white hair, a friendly smile, and fine blue eyes. 'You want a little horse? By all means, my dear sir, by all means.... But won't you step in and drink just a cup of tea with me first?' I declined and thanked him. 'Well, well, as you please. You must excuse me, sofa company dear sir; you see
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