GORDEY KARPYCH.  What, what, “with all your heart”?  You’re glad of the chance!  But how did you ever dare to think of it?  Is she your equal?  Remember to whom you’re talking.

MITYA.  I know very well that you are my master, and that I, because of my poverty, cannot be her equal; but however, think as you please.  Here I am; I’ve fallen in love with your daughter with all my heart and soul.

LYUBIM KARPYCH comes in and takes his stand in the crowd.

SCENE XV

The same and LYUBIM KARPYCH

GORDEY KARPYCH.  Well, how could you help loving her?  Your taste isn’t bad!  And you’ll get plenty of money with her, which is fine for a penniless fellow like you—­without a rag to your back!

MITYA.  It is so insulting for me to hear this from you, that I have no words.  Better keep silent. [Walks away] If you please, Lyubov Gordeyevna, you speak.

LYUBOV GORDEYEVNA.  Father, I have never gone against your will!  If you wish for my happiness, then give me to Mitya.

PELAGEYA EGOROVNA.  Why, why, really, Gordey Karpych, why do you keep changing your mind so?  Why do you?  I was beginning to feel happy; my heart was just beginning to feel easy, and now you begin again.  Do stick to something; otherwise what does all this mean?  Really!  First you say to one man, and then to the other!  Was she born your daughter just to be a martyr?

LYUBIM KARPYCH. [From the crowd] Brother, give Lyubov to Mitya!

GORDEY KARPYCH.  You here again!  Do you understand what you’ve done to me to-day?  You’ve put me to shame before the whole town!  If you felt this you wouldn’t dare to show yourself in my sight—­and then you slink in and give me advice!  If it were only a man talking and not you.

LYUBIM KARPYCH.  You’d better bow down to Lyubim Tortsov’s feet, just because he has put you to shame.

PELAGEYA EGOROVNA.  That’s it, dear Lyubim!  We ought to bow down to your feet; that’s just it!  You have taken a great sin from our souls; all our prayers could never have freed us from this sin.

GORDEY KARPYCH.  What, am I a monster to my own family?

PELAGEYA EGOROVNA.  You’re no monster, but you would have ruined your daughter through your own folly; I tell you this straight out!  They marry girls to old men who are a lot better than Afrikan Savvich, and even so they live miserable lives.

LYUBIM KARPYCH.  Permit me! [Sings] Tum-ty-tum, tum-ty-tum! [Dances] Look at me, here’s an example for you!  Lyubim Karpych stands before you large as life!  He went along that road, he knows what it is!  And I was rich and respected, I drove about in coaches, I played such pranks as would never come into your head; and then head over heels down.  Just see what a dandy I am!

GORDEY KARPYCH.  No matter what you say to me, I don’t want to listen; you are my enemy for the rest of my life.