GAVRILOVNA.  Thanks, my dear! [She goes out with LIZA, to the left.

SCENE VII

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA and POTAPYCH

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  Why don’t you insult me?  They all insult me, why don’t you?  You heard how she herself wanted to flog me; “I’ll have them do it with brooms,” she said.  May her words choke her!

POTAPYCH.  What, I!....  I insult anybody!  But as to the gentlefolk there ...  I don’t know, but perhaps they have to.

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  Do you see what’s going on in this house!  Do you see?  Do you understand it, or don’t you?  Just now when I began to talk about Grisha, you heard how she began to roar?  You heard how she began to hiss?

POTAPYCH.  What’s that to me?  I, by the mistress’s kindness, in her employ....I shall carry out all her orders....  What business is it of mine?  I don’t want to know anything that isn’t my business.

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  But did you see how Nadya and Liza—­the hussies!—­looked at me?  Did you see how the snakes looked?  Ha!  I must look after them, I must! [POTAPYCH, with a wave of his hand, goes out] Bah! you! you old blockhead!  What people!  What people!  There’s no one to whom I can talk, and relieve my heart. [She goes out.

III

Part of the garden; to the rear, a pond, on the shore of which is a boat.  Starry night.  A choral song is heard in the far distance.  For a while the stage is empty.

SCENE I

Enter NADYA and LIZA

LIZA.  Oh, Nadya, what’s this we’re doing?  When the mistress hears of this, it’ll be your last day on earth.

NADYA.  If you’re afraid, take yourself home.

LIZA.  No, I’ll wait for you.  But all the same, my girl, it’s awful, no matter what you say!  Lord preserve us when she finds it out.

NADYA.  Always singing the same tune!  If you fear the wolf, keep out of the woods.

LIZA.  But what has happened to you?  Before, you didn’t talk like this.  You used to hide yourself; and now you go to him of your own accord.

NADYA.  Yes, before I ran away from him; now I don’t want to. [She stands musing] Now I myself don’t know what has suddenly happened within me!  Just when the mistress said, a short while ago, that I shouldn’t dare to argue, but marry the man she said to marry, just then my whole heart revolted.  “Oh, Lord, what a life for me!” I thought. [She weeps] What’s the use in my living purely, guarding myself not merely from every word, but even from every look?  Even so, evil seized upon me.  “Why,” I thought, “should I guard myself?” I don’t want to!  I don’t want to!  It was just as if my heart died within me.  It seemed that if she said another word, I should die on the spot.