"Yes. Even the servants. Not one of them can stay here long. He changes them almost every month. The clerks, too. And all on account of that." "He annoys them?" "Terribly. The drunkards--they stay because drunkards don't hear. You may blow a bugle, but it's as if they had their ears stuffed. But the trouble is, he doesn't like drunkards." "Oh, Yevpraksia, and he is trying to persuade me to stay here." "Well, madam, it really would be nice of you to stay a while. Maybe in your presence he would be ashamed." "No. Thank you. I haven't the patience to look at him." "Yes, of course, you are of the gentlefolk. You can have your own way, and at that I suppose you've got to dance to somebody's music." "Oh, I should say so." "Yes, I thought so. I meant to ask you another thing. Is it nice to be an actress?" "You earn your own bread and butter. That's one good thing." "And is it true, as Porfiry Vladimirych was telling me, that strangers embrace actresses about the waist?" Anninka flushed up an instant. "Porfiry Vladimirych does not understand," she said with irritation. "That's why he talks nonsense. He seems to have no notion that it's only play and not reality on the stage." "And yet, even he, that is, Porfiry Vladimirych, when he saw you first, his mouth began to water. 'My niece,' and 'dear,' and 'darling,' like a gay blade. And his shameless eyes just devour you." "Yevpraksia, why do you talk nonsense?" "I? Oh, I don't care. You stay here and you'll see. And I--I don't care. I'll give up my position, and go back to father. It's dull here, anyway, you were right about it." "It is silly for you to suppose that I am going to stay here. But you're right about one thing, Golovliovo certainly _is_ a dull place. And the longer you stay here the duller you feel." Yevpraksia turned pensive, then yawned and said: "When I stayed with father I was very, very slim. Now, you see how stout I am, like an oven. So dullness does one good, after all." "You won't stand it long, anyway. Remember what I say--you won't." With this the conversation ended. Luckily Porfiry Vladimirych did not hear it, otherwise he would have obtained a new and fruitful theme for his endless sermonizing. Porfiry Vladimirych tortured Anninka for two whole days. He kept on saying, "Wait, don't be in a hurry! Quietly, easily. Say your prayers and receive your benediction," and so on. He tired her to death. Finally, on the fifth day, he was ready to go to town with her, though he found another way of tormenting his dear niece. She was in her fur coat waiting for him in the vestibule, and he, as if to spite her, lingered a whole hour, dressing and washing and clapping his thighs and crossing himself, and walking back and forth, and sitting down, and giving orders. "Here--, or see to it--you know what I mean. See that nothing happens--you know."