ARKHIP.  That is God’s gift to you.  From your childhood you have had no love for this vain world.  Some lose their faint-heartedness with years, when woes and afflictions, Afonya, crush and grind a man into powder; but you have never lived, have not yet tasted the world’s sorrows or joys, and yet you reason like an old man.  Thank God that he has made you wise.  The world does not charm you:  you do not know temptation, so your sins are less.  That is your good fortune.  Just listen to me.  I, Afonya, have known temptation and have not always turned aside from it, and most often I sought temptation of my own free will.  You say everything seems the same to you, that nothing in the world delights you; but to me God’s world was good and bright.  Everything beckoned and charmed me.  An unsated eye and free will command one to taste all the pleasures of the universe.  But in the world, Afonya, good and evil go hand in hand.  Well, one’s sins may be more in number than the sands of the sea.  Luckily God prolonged my life, that I might repent, and did not strike me down in my sins.  We repent and humble ourselves and hope for mercy; but you will have nothing to repent of; you, Afonya, are a man of God.

AFONYA.  No, grandfather, no, do not speak so.  How am I a man of God?  I have seen men of God, but they are good and do not remember evil.  They are abused and mocked, but they laugh at it, while I am rough and harsh, just like my brother; only brother is forgiving though quick-tempered, while I am not.  I, grandfather, I have an evil temper.

ARKHIP.  At whom should you be angry, my child; who injures you?

AFONYA.  No one injures me, but my heart aches for every one—­for you, for brother, for all of you.

ARKHIP.  Why are you grieving for us?  We have nothing to complain of.

AFONYA.  We didn’t have anything to complain of, grandfather, before brother married.  Grandfather, why does brother love his wife so?

ARKHIP.  Why shouldn’t he love her?  Why did he marry her?  You should be happy because he loves his wife.  What a foolish fellow you are!

AFONYA.  No, I speak the truth.  Formerly brother used to love you and me much more than now.

ARKHIP.  So you are jealous!  Probably you are envious.

AFONYA.  No, it isn’t envy; but is my brother blind?  Does she love him as he does her?  Is she worthy of him?  Why is he so servile in the presence of her and her kin?  His servility offends me.  Is he inferior to her and her sister?  One marries a wife to have a helper; but she sits with folded hands.  Brother alone works and dances attendance on them.  I pity him.

ARKHIP.  What business is it of yours?  It’s his own choice.  He works and doesn’t force you to.  You and I are fed by his kindness.

AFONYA.  Don’t I know that?  Tell me, grandfather, is she any better than brother or not?

ARKHIP.  Better or not, she is of different sort.