LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA. [Rising] I don’t need your money.

GORDEY KARPYCH.  Lyubov, where are you going?

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA.  To mother!

GORDEY KARPYCH.  Wait!  She’ll come here.

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA sits down.

KORSHUNOV.  You don’t want to sit by the old man?  Give me your hand, young lady; I will kiss it.

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA. [Gives her hand] Oh, good heavens!

KORSHUNOV.  What a hand!  He, he, he!  Like velvet! [Strokes her hand, and then puts on a diamond ring.

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA. [Freeing her hand] Oh, let me go!  I don’t want it; I don’t want it!

KORSHUNOV.  That’s all right; it’s no loss to me—­it won’t ruin me.

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA.  But I don’t want it.  Give it to whomever you like. [Takes it off and returns it.

KORSHUNOV.  I gave it to you, and I won’t take it back!  He, he, he!

Enter PELAGEYA EGOROVNA, and after her, ARINA and EGORUSHKA with wine and glasses.

SCENE X

The same with PELAGEYA EGOROVNA, ARINA, and EGORUSHKA

GORDEY KARPYCH.  Come now and have a drink.

KORSHUNOV.  All right, Gordey Karpych, give me something to drink.  And you girls, sing a song in my honor—­I love to have respect shown me.

PELAGEYA EGOROVNA.  Girls, sing a song for him.

GORDEY KARPYCH. [Uncorks the bottle, pours out champagne, and offers it to him] To our dear friend Afrikan Savvich!  Make a bow, wife!

PELAGEYA EGOROVNA.  If you please, Afrikan Savvich, I humbly beg you.

KORSHUNOV takes the glass.

GORDEY KARPYCH. [Takes the glass] Wife, drink!

PELAGEYA EGOROVNA.  Oh, somehow I don’t like this kind of wine!  Well, yes! 
I’ll take just a glass.

    GIRLS. [Sing] “Ah, who is he, our bachelor,
    And who is still unwed? 
    Afrikan’s our bachelor
    And Savvich still unwed. 
    He jumped on the horse,
    The horse skips to and fro;
    He rides through the meadows,
    And green the meadows grow,
    And flowers blow.”

KORSHUNOV. [Seats himself near LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA] That’s nice.  I like that.  Now, then, come here some one. [A girl comes up, he pats her on the cheek] Oh, you little bright eyes!  You girls, I suppose, need a lot to set off your fair faces and rosy blushes; he, he, he!  But I haven’t any money!  It will be on me, he, he, he!  Hold out your apron! [He tosses her some small change; the girl bows and goes out] Now, then, Gordey Karpych, tell your wife why we came.

GORDEY KARPYCH.  I told you, wife, long ago, that living in this town bored me, because you can’t take a step here without seeing that the people are absolutely ignorant and uneducated.  And so I want to move from this place to Moscow.  But there will be a man there who is no stranger to us—­our dear son-in-law, Afrikan Savvich.