The Spread of the rumor that the governor's daughter was to be abducted turns Chichikov’s dead-soul purchases into a supposed plot against the Governor’s family. Beginning as a woman’s conjecture, it acquires invented details, divides the town into rival camps, and reaches the Governor’s household. The episode shows rumor not merely accompanying the scandal around Chichikov but actively reshaping what the town believes the scandal means.

Origins at the Governor’s Ball

The rumor takes shape amid the social fallout from Chichikov’s conduct at a ball. He has attracted the Governor’s daughter’s attention, but his conversation leaves her yawning; other women take offense at his behavior, and their dissatisfaction becomes open enough to produce satirical verses about him. The narrator says that a tacit proscription falls on both Chichikov and the young woman. This hostile atmosphere supplies a setting in which a claim about their relationship can readily take hold.

When two women discuss the dead souls, one announces that they are an invention to conceal Chichikov’s real intention: abducting the Governor’s daughter. The exchange presents no evidence for the accusation. Its force comes instead from the speaker’s confidence and the other woman’s startled acceptance. The second woman says she would never have guessed it; her companion then claims that she had recognized the supposed truth as soon as the subject was raised. Speculation is thus converted into apparent confirmation by the manner in which the women respond to one another.

From Conjecture to Public Story

The exchange does not remain private. When the Public Prosecutor enters, the women tell him both about the purchases of dead souls and about the alleged abduction, then leave in different directions to inform the rest of the town. In less than half an hour, their account has spread widely. The narrative emphasizes the speed of transmission: the rumor becomes a public matter before anyone establishes what happened or tests the allegation.

As the story travels, it accumulates mutually inconsistent explanations. Some women claim that Chichikov and the Governor’s daughter have long been in love, that they have met by moonlight, and that the Governor would have consented because Chichikov was wealthy, except that Chichikov had deserted a wife. The narrator explicitly notes that how these women came to know of this supposed marriage remains a mystery. Other tellers deny that Chichikov has a wife and instead invent a scheme involving the Governor’s wife: Chichikov supposedly sought the mother’s favor before asking for the daughter’s hand, and, after refusal, resolved to abduct the girl. These competing versions do not weaken the rumor’s reach. Each adds fresh particulars, making the story seem more definite even as its versions contradict one another.

The accusation also draws strength from claims about the daughter’s conduct. One woman says that the young woman makes remarks she herself hesitates to repeat, and the pair invoke the supposed immorality of the times. Such insinuations widen the story beyond a question of Chichikov’s actions: they place the daughter’s reputation and her schooling under suspicion, although the account provides no substantiation for the allegation against her.

The Town Divides into Camps

The expanding rumor creates two connected but distinct controversies: the dead souls and the alleged abduction. The men’s group concentrates chiefly on the purchases, while the women’s group focuses on the Governor’s daughter. The narrator describes the women’s discussion as more orderly and definite, and the men’s as confused and divided. That contrast is part of the book’s satirical treatment of the town’s response; it does not make the women’s account more reliable. Their organization helps an unsupported accusation gain coherence and influence.

The women’s party tries to persuade the men that the dead-soul business is only a diversion intended to conceal the abduction. Some men cross over to their side, despite being insulted by former allies with names such as “old women” and “petticoats.” The men’s resistance, meanwhile, does not amount to a settled explanation: they dispute the abduction story, speculate that a military man might be responsible, and still regard the dead-soul matter as suspicious. The result is not a common search for evidence but a contest between narratives, each assigning a different meaning to Chichikov’s purchases.

Consequences for the Governor’s Household

As the women’s version reaches more corners of the town, it eventually reaches the Governor’s wife. She is deeply offended by the stories, and her sixteen-year-old daughter—whom the account identifies as innocent—must endure an unpleasant conversation with her mother. The Swiss footman is then ordered never to admit Chichikov to the house. The rumor therefore produces a concrete domestic consequence: it changes who may enter the Governor’s home and puts the daughter under suspicion despite the narrator’s insistence on her innocence.

The women’s campaign also influences public discussion by joining the alleged abduction to the dead-soul purchases. What had been a claim made in conversation becomes a framework through which townspeople interpret Chichikov’s conduct. The rumor’s progression—from conjecture, to invented backstory, to household restriction and factional dispute—exposes how quickly social confidence can replace evidence. Its comic proliferation carries a sharper consequence: the young woman bears the cost of a story she did not create, while Chichikov’s already controversial dealings acquire a second, unfounded explanation.