[Khlestakov alone.]

KHLESTAKOV: It's just as if I had eaten nothing at all, upon my word. It has only whetted my appetite. If I only had some change to send to the market and buy some bread.

OSIP: [entering] The Governor has come, I don't know what for. He's inquiring about you.

KHLESTAKOV: [in alarm] There now! That inn-keeper has gone and made a complaint against me. Suppose he really claps me into jail? Well! If he does it in a gentlemanly way, I may—No, no, I won't. The officers and the people are all out on the street and I set the fashion for them and the merchant's daughter and I flirted. No, I won't. And pray, who is he? How dare he, actually? What does he take me for? A tradesman? I'll tell him straight out, "How dare you? How—"

[The door knob turns and Khlestakov goes pale and shrinks back.]