VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  Ask forgiveness, you blockhead!  Kiss the dear lady’s hand!

GRISHA waves his hand impatiently and goes out.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  What an affliction!  It’ll simply make me ill!  Already I feel my spasms are beginning.  What a worthless scamp!  He went out just as if he had no responsibilities!  And without a sign of repentance!

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  Ah, benefactress, you see he’s still a child; he did it just out of stupidity.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  No, he needs a good....

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  What do you say, benefactress?  He’s still a regular booby!  What can you expect of him!  He’ll get wiser, then it will be altogether different.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  What offends me most is ingratitude!  It seems to me he ought to feel what I am doing for him.  I’m positively sick.  Go for the doctor!

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  Calm yourself, benefactress; as if that rabble were worth your getting upset over!

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  Hand me the smelling-salts.

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA. [Hands her them] Snap your fingers at them, that’s all.  Now, if only those girls....

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  Oh, here’s another affliction!  Now I certainly can’t collect my thoughts; I’m completely distracted, and now she begins on the girls!  I shall take to my bed at any moment.

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  Lust, benefactress, is beyond all endurance.

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  No, they needn’t expect any mercy from me.  As it is, I forgive one, then another, and so the whole crowd is spoiled. [She rings; enter POTAPYCH] Call Nadezhda, and come here yourself! [POTAPYCH goes out] That’s what it is to be a woman.  If I were a man, would they dare be so willful?

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA.  They don’t give a fig for you, benefactress, not a fig.  They aren’t a little bit afraid of you!

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  They’re going to find out pretty quick whether I amount to anything.

Enter POTAPYCH and NADYA.  GAVRILOVNA and LIZA look through the door.

SCENE IV

The same, POTAPYCH and NADYA

MADAM ULANBEKOV.  Nadezhda!  Vasilisa PEREGRINOVNA says she saw you in the garden last night with the master.  Is that so? [NADYA is silent] You’re silent, that means it’s true.  Well, now, you can thank yourself.  I’m not a conniver at loose conduct, and I won’t endure it in my house.  I can’t turn you out as a vagabond, that would weigh upon my conscience.  I am obliged to marry you off. [To POTAPYCH] Send to town and tell NEGLIGENTOV that I shall marry Nadya to him; and let the wedding be just as soon as possible.

[She rises from her chair and is about to leave].

NADYA. [Falling at her feet] Whatever you wish, only not marriage with him!