Nadezhda[2] (called Nadya), seventeen years old, favorite protegee of madam ULANBEKOV; dressed like a young lady.

[Footnote 2:  Hope.]

Gavrilovna, the housekeeper; an elderly woman, plump, with an open countenance.

GRISHA, a boy of nineteen, a favorite of the mistress, dandified in dress, wearing a watch with a gold chain.  He is handsome, curly-headed, with a foolish expression.

NEGLIGENTOV, a clerk in a government office; a very disreputable young man.

LIZA, a housemaid, not bad-looking, but very stout and snub-nosed; in a white dress, of which the bodice is short and ill-fitting.  About her neck is a little red kerchief; her hair is very much pomaded.

A peasant girl, a footman, and a housemaid:  mute personages.

The action takes place in the springtime, at the suburban estate of MADAM ULANBEKOV

A PROTEGEE OF THE MISTRESS

I

Part of a densely grown garden; on the right benches; at the back a rail fence, separating the garden from a field.

SCENE I

Enter NADYA and LIZA

NADYA.  No, Liza, don’t say that:  what comparison could there be between country and city life!

LIZA.  What is there so specially fine about city life?

NADYA.  Well, everything is different there; the people themselves, and even the whole social order are entirely different. [She sits down on a bench.] When I was in Petersburg with the mistress, one had only to take a look at the sort of people who came to see us, and at the way our rooms were decorated; besides, the mistress took me with her everywhere; we even went on the steamer to Peterhof, and to Tsarskoe Selo.

LIZA.  That was pretty fine, I suppose.

NADYA.  Yes indeed, it was so splendid that words can’t describe it!  Because, no matter how much I may tell you about it, if you haven’t seen it yourself, you’ll never understand.  And when a young lady, the mistress’s niece, was visiting us, I used to chat with her the whole evening, and sometimes we even sat through the night.

LIZA.  What in the world did you talk about with her?

NADYA.  Well, naturally, for the most part about the ways of high society, about her dancing partners, and about the officers of the guard.  And as she was often at balls, she told me what they talked about there, and whom she had liked best.  Only how fine those young ladies are!

LIZA.  What do you mean?

NADYA.  They’re very gay.  And where did they learn all that?  Afterwards we lived a whole winter in Moscow.  Seeing all this, my dear, you try to act like a born lady yourself.  Your very manners change, and you try to have a way of talking of your own.