KHALI. And what better are you? You are a gardener's daughter, you insolent thing! SALOME. You are insolent, yourself! Do not think so much of yourself--everyone knows that you have robbed the whole world, and only in that way have gotten up in the world. KHALI. Oh, you good-for-nothing! [_Throws herself on Salome and tears her veil off_. SALOME. Oh! oh! [_Gets hold of Khali's hair_. KHALI. Oh! oh! SALOME. I'll pull all your hair out! [_Astonished, she holds a lock in her hand_. _Enter Ossep_. OSSEP. What do I see? KHALI [_tearing the lock from Salome's hand_]. May I be blind! [_Exit embarrassed_. SALOME [_arranging her veil_]. Oh, you monkey, you! OSSEP. What is the meaning of this? SALOME. God only knows how it came to this. I was walking quietly in the street and she called me in and tore the veil from my head because I, as she said, took her daughter's suitor away from her. OSSEP. It serves you right! That comes from your having secrets from me and promising him 7,000 rubles instead of 6,000. SALOME. I would rather have broken a leg than come into this horrid house. I did it only out of politeness. I wish these people might lose everything they have got [_pinning her veil_]. At any rate, I punished her for it by pulling off her false hair. If she tells on herself now, she may also tell about me. She got out of the room quickly, so that no one would find out that her hair was as false as everything else. OSSEP. It would be best for us if the earth opened and swallowed us up. SALOME [_crying_]. Am I, then, so much to blame here? OSSEP. Really, you look splendid! Go! go! that no one sees you here. It is not the first time that you have put me in a dilemma. Go! and pray God to change noon into midnight and make the streets dark, so that no one sees that you have a torn veil on your head. SALOME [_wiping away her tears_]. God only knows everything I have to suffer from you! OSSEP [_alone_]. Great heaven! how this world is arranged! When one trouble comes to a man a second comes along, too, and waits at his door. When I am just about ready to cope with the first, in comes the second and caps the climax. I don't know which way to turn with all my debts; and now this women's quarrel will be laid at my door. SCENE VII BARSSEGH [_coming in, angry_]. I will show him that I am a man! OSSEP. Good-morning! BARSSEGH. I want neither "good-morning" nor any other wish from you. You have, I suppose, come to help your wife. Give me a blow, too, so the measure will be full. This is surely the interest on the money you owe me. OSSEP. Calm yourself. What, indeed, do you want? BARSSEGH. Do you, then, believe that I will overlook my wife's hair being pulled out? That I will not pardon. OSSEP. What is there to pardon? Your wife tore my wife's veil from her head. BARSSEGH. A veil is not hair. OSSEP. For heaven's sake, stop! Is a women's spat our affair?