Enter POTAPYCH in an overcoat and a broad-brimmed hat, and with a cane, somewhat tipsy; GAVRILOVNA in an old-fashioned bonnet.  They sit down on the bench.

POTAPYCH.  No, Gavrilovna, not that ... don’t say that!...  Our lady is so ... such a kind mistress!...  Here, we asked if we could go to the fair, and she said to go along....  But what they say about her ... that I don’t know:  it’s not my business, and so I don’t know anything about it.

GAVRILOVNA.  Why not let us go, Potapych?  You and I are not youngsters; we shan’t be spoiled!

POTAPYCH.  You can’t let the young folks go, because you must have models for everything, Gavrilovna.  Whatever models a person has in front of him, he may, very likely ... most probably....

GAVRILOVNA.  Well, why did she let Grisha go?  She said she wouldn’t; well, and then she ought not to have done it.

POTAPYCH.  Vasilisa Peregrinovna stirred me up a lot on Grisha’s account a while ago ... she stirred me up a lot, but I don’t know.  It’s not my business, so I don’t know anything about it.

GAVRILOVNA.  What’s this you were saying about models?  It would be better for her to show a better example herself!  As it is, she only keeps shouting:  “Watch, I tell you, watch the girls!” But what’s the use of watching them?  Are they all babies?  Every person has his own brains in his head.  Let every one think for himself.  All you need to do is to look out for the five-year-olds, that they don’t spoil something or other.  What a life for a girl!  There’s nothing worse on earth!  But the mistress doesn’t want to consider whether a girl gets much fun out of life.  Well, does she get much?  Say!

POTAPYCH. [Sighs] A dog’s life.

GAVRILOVNA.  It surely is!  Consequently one ought to pity them and not insult them at every step.  As it is, it’s simply awful!  Nobody trusts them at all; it’s just as if they weren’t human beings.  Just let a girl poke her nose out, and the guards are on the job!

POTAPYCH.  But you can’t.

GAVRILOVNA.  Can’t what?  You can do everything.  That’ll do, Potapych!  You’re used to saying over other people’s words like a magpie; but just think for yourself.

POTAPYCH.  But I don’t know ...  I don’t know anything.

GAVRILOVNA.  You won’t gain anything through severity.  You may tell ’em, if you please, that they’ll be hung for such-and-such; they’ll go and do it anyway.  Where there’s the greatest strictness, there’s the most sin.  You ought to reason like a human being.  No matter if our masters pay money for their wits while we have only what we’re born with, we have our own way of thinking, all the same.  It’s all right to lay down the law strictly; but don’t always punish a fellow who makes a slip; let him off now and then.  Some bad comes from spoiling people; but now and then you can’t help going wrong.

POTAPYCH.  Now, if you ask me ... what can I answer to that?  How can I answer you?