Don’t embarrass the young lady, Mr. Tropinin.  In the presence of a lady—­

SAVVA

And furthermore, he doesn’t believe in God.

KONDRATY

He is joking.

LIPA

I don’t like such jokes.  What have you come here for?

KONDRATY

I am here by invitation.

SAVVA

I have some business with him.

LIPA (without looking at Savva)

What have you come here for?

SAVVA

For nothing that concerns you.  You had better have a talk with him.  He is a chap that possesses a great deal of curiosity.  He’s not a fool, either, but knows what’s what.

LIPA (looking searchingly at Savva)

I know him well, I know him very well.

KONDRATY

To my regret I must admit it’s true.  I have the unenviable fortune of being known as a man who does not observe the outer forms of conduct.  It is on account of that characteristic I was fired from my position as government clerk, and it’s on that account I am now frequently condemned to live for weeks on nothing but bread and water.  I cannot act in secret.  I am open and above-board.  In fact, I fairly cry aloud whatever I do.  For example, the circumstances under which I met you, Mr. Tropinin, are such that I am ashamed to recall them.

SAVVA

Don’t recall them then.

KONDRATY (to Lipa)

I was lying in a mud puddle in all my dignity, like a regular hog.

LIPA (disgusted)

All right.

KONDRATY

But I am not ashamed to speak of it; first, because many people saw it, and of course nobody took the trouble to get me out of it except Savva Yegorovich, and secondly, because I regard this as my cross.

LIPA

A fine cross!

KONDRATY

Every man, Miss Olympiada, has his cross.  It isn’t so very nice to be lying in a mud puddle.  Dry ground is pleasanter every time.  And do you know, I think half of the water in that puddle was my own tears, and my woeful lamentations made ripples on it—­

SAVVA

That’s not quite so, Kondraty.  You were singing a song:  “And we’re baptized of him in Jordan”—­to a very jolly tune at that.

KONDRATY

You don’t say!  What of it?  So much the worse.  It shows to what depths a man will descend.