Plays by Aleksandr Nikolaevich Ostrovsky Part 7

MADAM ULANBeKOV. How easy it is to be mistaken in people! You take pains for them, work your head off, and they don't even feel it. I should have been glad to establish that boy in life, but he crawls into the house drunk. Now, if he's a prey to that weakness, he ought, at least, to try to hide it from me. Let him drink where he will, but don't let me see it!

I should know, at least, that he respected me. What clownishness! What impudence! Whom will he be afraid of, pray tell, if not of me?

LEONiD. Oh, what a comical fellow! Don't be angry with me, mamma. When I found out that you wanted to marry NaDYA to him, I felt sorry for her. And you're so good to everybody! [_He kisses her hand_] I didn't want you to do anything unjust.

MADAM ULANBeKOV. Such people fairly drive you into sin. [_Kissing him_] You have a beautiful soul, my dear! [_To_ VASILiSA PEREGRiNOVNA] Indeed, I have always thought that G.o.d himself sometimes speaks with the lips of babes.

Liza! Go tell Nadezhda not to cry, that I have turned out NEGLIGeNTOV.

LiZA. Yes, ma'am. [_She goes out_.

GRiSHA. [_Approaches, swaggering, and stops in a free and easy pose_]

Mistress!

MADAM ULANBeKOV. What's the matter with you?

GRiSHA. Let me go down-town; to-day's a holiday there.

MADAM ULANBeKOV. What do you want to go for? To stare at the drunkards?

GRiSHA. [_Clasping his hands behind him_] Please, ma'am.

MADAM ULANBeKOV. No, most certainly not!

GRiSHA. Please do, mistress.

MADAM ULANBeKOV. I tell you, positively, no! One's morals are just spoiled at these fairs. Your greedy ears will take in all kinds of nastiness!

You're still a boy; that's no place for you!

GRiSHA. No, but please let me, ma'am.

MADAM ULANBeKOV. You stay right here! Put that nonsense out of your head!

GRiSHA. Well, I declare! I slave, and slave, and can't ever go anywhere!

VASILiSA PEREGRiNOVNA. Oh me, oh my! Oh me, oh my! How spoiled you are! How spoiled you are!

MADAM ULANBeKOV. What are you cackling about? Keep still!

VASILiSA PEREGRiNOVNA. But how can I keep still, benefactress? Such lack of feeling! Such ingrat.i.tude! It pierces the heart.

MADAM ULANBeKOV. I command you to keep still, and you must keep still!

GRiSHA. Please let me, ma'am!

VASILiSA PEREGRiNOVNA. As if the mistress didn't love you, as if she didn't fondle you, more, if anything, than her own son!

MADAM ULANBeKOV. [_Stamping her foot_] Shhh!.... I'll turn you out!

GRiSHA. I want awfully to go to the fair; please let me, ma'am.

MADAM ULANBeKOV. Well, go along then! but come back early!

GRiSHA. Yes, ma'am.

VASILiSA PEREGRiNOVNA. Kiss the dear lady's hand, you blockhead!

GRiSHA. What are you trying to teach me for? I know my own business. [_He kisses the mistress's hand and goes out._

MADAM ULANBeKOV. As for you, my dear, if I ever hear anything like this again, I'll have them drive you off the place with brooms.

_She goes out._ VASILiSA PEREGRiNOVNA _remains standing in a stupor._

SCENE VI

_The same, except_ MADAM ULANBeKOV; _then_ LiZA

LEONiD. Well, you caught it, didn't you? And you deserved it, too!

VASILiSA PEREGRiNOVNA. I'll have my turn yet.

LiZA _enters._

LiZA. [_Quietly to_ LEONiD] Nadya sent me to say that we'll come to the garden.

LEONiD. Give her a kiss from me.

GAVRiLOVNA. G.o.d give you health, master, for taking our part. Any wretch can insult us; but there's no one to take our part. You'll get a rich reward for that in the next world.

LEONiD. I'm always ready to help you. [_He goes out to the right, with a caper._

GAVRiLOVNA. Thanks, my dear! [_She goes out with_ LiZA, _to the left_.

SCENE VII

VASILiSA PEREGRiNOVNA _and_ POTaPYCH

VASILiSA PEREGRiNOVNA. Why don't you insult me? They all insult me, why don't you? You heard how she herself wanted to flog me; "I'll have them do it with brooms," she said. May her words choke her!

POTaPYCH. What, I!.... I insult anybody! But as to the gentlefolk there ... I don't know, but perhaps they have to.

VASILiSA PEREGRiNOVNA. Do you see what's going on in this house! Do you see? Do you understand it, or don't you? Just now when I began to talk about Grisha, you heard how she began to roar? You heard how she began to hiss?

POTaPYCH. What's that to me? I, by the mistress's kindness, in her employ....I shall carry out all her orders.... What business is it of mine?