The ball, and one fatal snub

The town debates whether Chichikov's peasants will survive resettlement in Kherson and concludes he is a millionaire. The ladies of the town that will remain nameless — strict in morals, French in vocabulary, forever quarrelling over a contre-visite — discover a great many new qualities in him. An anonymous letter arrives, unsigned and undated, inviting him to the desert and closing with a verse about two turtle-doves. He spends an hour before the mirror, chucks himself under the chin, and goes to the Governor's ball, where he is passed from embrace to embrace. Hunting for his correspondent among the ladies, he instead meets the Governor's daughter — the golden-haired girl from the road collision — and forgets everyone else, including his hostess. Their goodwill curdles instantly. Then Nozdryov appears, drunk, and announces to the Governor that Chichikov trades in dead souls. Meanwhile Korobochka rattles into town in a vehicle like a watermelon on wheels.

The reversal, engineered from a single social misstep. Chichikov survives the ball's rumour of money and is destroyed by neglecting the ladies, which is Gogol's point about where power actually sits. Nozdryov's drunken announcement lands on ground the hero has already prepared, and Korobochka's arrival closes the trap.