things come into my head.  But he certainly isn’t a bandit.  And then my wife, a little while ago—­I’m just an enemy to myself!  There surely can’t be anything bad; but I think of all sorts of nonsense!  I’d better go and have a chat with my friends at the tavern.  What did he whisper to her just now?  Well, they’re old acquaintances; just something! [Takes his cap] Tatyana Danilovna!  I pined for you until I married you; and now that I have married you, all my heart aches.  Don’t ruin me, poor lad that I am; it will be a sin for you! [Goes out.

TABLEAU II

Same room as in ACT I

SCENE I

KARP and PROKOFYEVNA come in

PROKOFYEVNA.  Is he asleep?

KARP.  Don’t know.  I guess not; he hasn’t that habit.  It isn’t time yet, anyway.  What do you think?  In St. Petersburg it isn’t dinner-time yet, it’s still morning.

PROKOFYEVNA.  What’s that, good heavens!

KARP.  Why, at times in the winter, when it’s already dusk and the lights are lit everywhere, it’s still considered morning.

PROKOFYEVNA.  What’s the wonder!  It’s a big city, the capital, not like this.  I just came in to see if anything was needed. [Glancing out of the window] I believe some one is coming here.  I’ll go and meet them. [Goes out.

KARP.  One is bored to extinction here.  If he’d grease the palms of the principal men at the court, then they’d have done it in a jiffy.  At least we’d now be home, at business.  I wonder how it is he isn’t bored!  I wonder if he hasn’t found some prey here!  He surely doesn’t go about town for nothing!  I know his ways:  he walks and walks past the windows, and casts his eye around for some brunette.

PROKOFYEVNA comes in.

PROKOFYEVNA.  Go and tell him that he is wanted, my dear sir.

KARP.  Why is he wanted?

PROKOFYEVNA.  You tell him; he knows why.

KARP. [Through the door] Please, sir, you have visitors.

BABAYEV. [From the door] Who?

PROKOFYEVNA.  Come out, sir, for a minute; you’re wanted!

BABAYEV enters.

SCENE II

KARP, PROKOFYEVNA, BABAYEV

PROKOFYEVNA.  Listen!  Tatyana Danilovna, the wife of the shopkeeper, has come with her sister, and wants to know if they may come in.

BABAYEV.  Ask them in.  I’ll tell you what!  Listen, landlady!  Please avoid gossip!  It’s possible that she’ll come again, so you’ll please say that she comes to see you.  If any one asks you, you know; the city is small, and every one knows every one else, and every one watches every one else, where each goes, and what each does.

PROKOFYEVNA.  Oh, sir!  What’s that to me!  I looked but I didn’t see.  You’re a stranger, not of this place.