PELAGEYA EGOROVNA.  Oh!  Oh!  What are you saying!

KORSHUNOV.  Yes, we’ve shaken hands on it, Pelageya Egorovna.  What are you afraid of?  I’m not going to eat her!

PELAGEYA EGOROVNA.  Oh, Lord! [Seizes her daughter] She’s my daughter!  I won’t give her up!

GORDEY KARPYCH.  Wife!

PELAGEYA EGOROVNA.  My dear Gordey Karpych!  Don’t trifle with a mother’s heart!  Stop!  You’ve fairly staggered me!

GORDEY KARPYCH.  Wife, you know me!  And you, Afrikan Savvich, don’t be uneasy:  with me saying is doing!

KORSHUNOV.  You have promised—­then keep your word. [Rises, goes to the girls, and speaks to them in a low voice.

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA. [Goes to her father] Father, I will never take a step against your will.  But have pity on me, poor girl that I am!  Don’t ruin my young life!

GORDEY KARPYCH.  You’re a fool, and don’t understand your own happiness!  You’ll live in Moscow like a lady; you’ll ride in a coach.  In the first place, you’ll live in the city—­and not in a wilderness like this!  In the second place, these are my orders!

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA.  I dare not disobey your command.  Father! [Bows down to his feet] Don’t make me unhappy for my whole life!  Relent, father!  Make me do whatever you like, only don’t compel me to marry a man I don’t love!

GORDEY KARPYCH.  I never take back my word. [Rises.

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA.  As you wish, father! [Bows and goes to her mother.

KORSHUNOV.  There, that business is over!  Now, then, girls—­a marriage song!

    GIRLS. [Sing] “The flowers in the garden will wither all about me,
    The blue flower in the meadow will be faded and forlorn;
    And so will my darling of the red cheeks without me;
    So rise up early, mother, in the morn. 
    You must water all the flowers
    In the dawn and evening hours
    With water very often and with bitter tears in showers.”

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA.  Not that, not that!  Sing another!

GORDEY KARPYCH.  Let’s go into the reception-room, Afrikan Savvich.  Wife, all of you, come there!

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA.  Where can I hide myself!

GORDEY KARPYCH.  Arina, bring along the wine!

ARINA.  Oh, wait, I can’t attend to you now!  My darling child!  Girls, my dearies!  Here’s the song we’ll sing. [She sings.

    “Thou art my own, my mother,
    Who grievest day by day,
    And at night to God dost pray. 
    Thou who art so downcast,
    Look but once on her here,
    Thy daughter who was so dear—­
    For the last time—­the last.”

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA.  For the last time.

At the end of this song GORDEY KARPYCH and KORSHUNOV go out; LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA remains in the embrace of her mother, surrounded by her friends.