MADAM ULANBEKOV.  All the same, I want to know whom I have offended?

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  Well, there are some persons, benefactress.

MADAM ULANBEKOV. [Forcibly] But who?  Speak!

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  Don’t be angry, benefactress!  I spoke as I did because you yourself know how touchy people are nowadays—­never satisfied.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  You spoke as you did in order to cause me some unpleasantness.

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  May my eyes burst if I did.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  Well, I know you.  You’re never at rest in your own soul unless you’re about to say something mean.  You will please be more careful; otherwise you’ll drive me out of patience one of these days; it’ll be all the worse for you. [Silence] Serve the tea.

GAVRILOVNA.  Right away, mistress.

She pours out two cups.  POTAPYCH hands them to MADAM ULANBEKOV and to VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  Pour Grisha a cup, too; he went with me to-day, and he’s tired out.

GAVRILOVNA.  Yes, mistress.

[She pours out a cup and hands it to GRISHA.

GRISHA.  Why didn’t you put more milk in it?  Are you stingy, eh?

GAVRILOVNA. [Adding milk] As it is, you’re fattened on milk, like a calf.

GRISHA takes the cup and goes out through the door into the garden.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  I have thought of marrying NADYA to NEGLIGENTOV—­with a decent settlement, of course.  You say that he leads a bad life; consequently we must hasten the wedding.  She is a girl of good principles, she’ll hold him back, otherwise he’ll ruin himself with his bachelor habits.  Bachelor life is very bad for young men.

NADYA. [To LIZA] Do you hear, Liza?  What’s this?  My God!

LIZA.  You just have to listen, and you can’t say a word.

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  It’s high time she was married, benefactress; why should she be hanging around here?  And now your young son, the angel, has come.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  Oh, be still!  What are you thinking up now?  Why, he’s only a child!

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  A child, benefactress!  Well, there’s nothing more to be said; God gave you a son as a joy and a consolation.  And we can never feast our eyes enough on him.  It’s just as if the sunshine had come into our house.  So good-natured, so merry, so gentle with every one!  But he’s already running after the girls so; he never lets one pass; and they, silly things, are tickled to death; they fairly snort with delight.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  You’re lying.  He never has a chance to see the girls anywhere, I think; all day long they are in their own side of the house, and, besides, they never go anywhere.

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  Ah, benefactress, there are no locks to keep a girl in, once she takes a notion to do something.