LEONID.  What was your conduct like?

NEGLIGENTOV.  Reprehensible.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  What in the world!  Good heavens!  Go away, my dear sir, go away!

LEONID.  Oh, mamma, he’s comical; wait a bit before driving him out.  Dance,
NEGLIGENTOV!

NEGLIGENTOV. [Dances and sings]

“I shall go, shall go to mow
 Upon the meadow green.”

GRISHA bursts out laughing.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  Stop, stop! [NEGLIGENTOV ceases. To GRISHA] What are you laughing at?

GRISHA.  The member dances very comically.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  What do you mean, “member”?

GRISHA.  Why, he himself tells us all that he is a member in the court, not a copy-clerk.  And so they call him the member.

NEGLIGENTOV.  I call myself the member, although falsely, but expressly for the respect of the court menials, and in order to escape scoffing and insult.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  Be gone, and don’t you ever dare to show yourself to me!

NEGLIGENTOV.  Uncle says that I fell into loose living because of my bachelor life, and that I may get mired in it unless you show me your favor.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  No, no, never!

NEGLIGENTOV. [On his knees] Uncle told me to beg you with tears, because I am a lost man, subject to many vices, and, without your favor, I shall not be tolerated in the civil service.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  Tell your uncle that I shall always be your benefactress; but don’t you even think about a wife!  Be gone, be gone!

NEGLIGENTOV.  I thank you for not deserting me! [To GRISHA] Ask the mistress to let you go to the fair, and catch up with me! [He goes out.

SCENE V

The same, except NEGLIGENTOV

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  How easy it is to be mistaken in people!  You take pains for them, work your head off, and they don’t even feel it.  I should have been glad to establish that boy in life, but he crawls into the house drunk.  Now, if he’s a prey to that weakness, he ought, at least, to try to hide it from me.  Let him drink where he will, but don’t let me see it!  I should know, at least, that he respected me.  What clownishness!  What impudence!  Whom will he be afraid of, pray tell, if not of me?

LEONID.  Oh, what a comical fellow!  Don’t be angry with me, mamma.  When I found out that you wanted to marry NADYA to him, I felt sorry for her.  And you’re so good to everybody! [He kisses her hand] I didn’t want you to do anything unjust.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  Such people fairly drive you into sin. [Kissing him] You have a beautiful soul, my dear! [To VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA] Indeed, I have always thought that God himself sometimes speaks with the lips of babes.  Liza!  Go tell Nadezhda not to cry, that I have turned out NEGLIGENTOV.