PODKHALYUZIN.  Wha—­at, ma’am?

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  You promised me fifteen hundred!

PODKHALYUZIN.  Ain’t that a bit steep?  Won’t you be living too high?

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  What’s this, you barnyard cockerel; are you trying to joke with me, man?  I’m a mighty cocky lady myself!

PODKHALYUZIN.  But why should I give you money?  I’d do it if there were any occasion for it.

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  Whether for something or for nothing, give it here—­you promised it yourself!

PODKHALYUZIN.  What if I did promise!  I promised to jump from the Tower of Ivan the Great, provided I married Olimpiada Samsonovna; should I jump?

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  Do you think I won’t have the law on you?  Much I care that you’re a merchant of the second guild; I’m in the fourteenth class myself, and even if that ain’t much, I’m an official’s wife all the same.

PODKHALYUZIN.  You may be a general’s wife—­it’s all the same to me; I won’t have anything to do with you!  And there’s an end to it!

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  You lie, it ain’t!  You promised me a sable cloak.

PODKHALYUZIN.  What, ma’am?

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  A sable cloak!  Have you grown deaf, maybe?

PODKHALYUZIN.  Sable, ma’am!  He, he, he!

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  Yes, sable!  What are you laughing and stretching your mouth at?

PODKHALYUZIN.  You haven’t gone out for a stroll with your mug in a sable cloak[1] yet, have you?

[Footnote 1:  Russian fur cloaks, it may be useful to remember, have broad collars that can be turned up to protect the face.]

OLIMPIADA SAMSONOVNA brings in a dress and hands it to USTINYA NAUMOVNA.

SCENE III

The same and OLIMPIADA SAMSONOVNA

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  What in the world is the matter with you; do you want to rob me, maybe?

PODKHALYUZIN.  Rob you, nothing!  You just go to the devil, and be done with you!

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  Are you going to turn me out?  And I, senseless idiot, agreed to work for you:  I can see now your vulgar blood!

PODKHALYUZIN.  What, ma’am!  Speak, if you please!

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  When it comes to that, I don’t care to look at you!  Not for any amount of money on earth will I agree to associate with you!  I’ll go twenty miles out of my way, but I won’t go by you!  I’ll sooner shut my eyes and bump into a horse, than stand and look at your dirty den!  Even if I want to spit, I’ll never set foot in this street again!  Break me in ten pieces if I lie!  You can go to the infernal jim-jams if you ever see me here again!

PODKHALYUZIN.  Easy now, aunty, easy!

USTINYA NAUMOVNA.  I’ll show you up, my jewels:  you’ll find out!  I’ll give you such a rep in Moscow that you won’t dare show your face in public!—­Oh!  I’m a fool, a fool to have anything to do with such a person!  And I, a lady of rank and position!—­Fah, fah, fall! [She goes out.