RISPOLOZHENSKY. [Sits down] There was an old man, a venerable old man—­Here, I’ve forgotten where it was, my dear madam—­only it was in some desert spot.  He had twelve daughters, my dear madam; each younger than the other!  He didn’t have the strength to work himself; his wife, too, was very old, the children were still small; and one has to eat and drink.  What they had was used up by the time they were old, and there was no one to give them food and drink.  Where could they find refuge with their little children?  Then he set to thinking this way, then that way.—­No, my dear lady, that’s where thinking won’t do any good.  “I’ll go,” he said, “to the crossroads; perhaps I can get something from charitable people.”  He sat all day.  “God’ll help you,” they told him.  Sits there another day “God’ll help you!” Well, my dear lady, he began to murmur.

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA.  Holy saints!

RISPOLOZHENSKY.  “Good Lord!” he said, “I’m no extortioner, I’m no usurer—­it would be better,” he said, “to lay hands on myself.”

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA.  Merciful heavens!

RISPOLOZHENSKY.  And lo! my dear madam, there came a dream to him in the night——­

SCENE IX

The same and BOLSHOV

BOLSHOV.  Ha, you here, sir?  What’s this you’re preaching here?

RISPOLOZHENSKY. [Bows] I hope you’re well, Samson Silych.

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  Why, my jewel!  You seem to be growing thin.  Or have you been crippled somehow?

BOLSHOV. [Sitting down] Must be I’ve caught cold, or perhaps my blood’s in a bad way.

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA.  Well, Sysoy Psoich, and what happened to him next?

RISPOLOZHENSKY.  Some other time, Agrafena Kondratyevna, some other time I’ll finish telling; I’ll run in some day about dusk and tell you about it fully.

BOLSHOV.  What’s the matter with you; trying to be sanctimonious?  Ha, ha, ha!  It’s time you came to!

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA.  There, now, you’re beginning!  You won’t let us have a heart-to-heart talk together.

BOLSHOV.  Heart-to-heart talk!  Ha, ha, ha!  But you just ask him how his case was lost from court; there’s the story he’ll tell you better.

RISPOLOZHENSKY.  On the contrary, it was not lost!  That’s not true, Samson Silych!

BOLSHOV.  Then what did they turn you out for?

RISPOLOZHENSKY.  This is why, my dear Agrafena Kondratyevna.  I took one case home with me from the court; on the way my friend and I just stepped aside—­mortal man is weak; well, you understand—­if you’ll permit me to say it, into the wine-shop, so to speak.  I left it there, and when I was rather tipsy, I suppose, I forgot it.  What of that?  It might happen to anybody.  Afterwards, my dear lady, they missed that case in court; we looked and looked, and I went home twice with the bailiff—­still we couldn’t find it.  They wanted to bring me to trial, but suddenly I remembered:  it must be, now, I forgot that thing and left it in the wine-shop.  I went there with the bailiff, and there it was.