TÁNYA. Well then Sim darling, only mind do as I tell you, and don't get frightened. He'll sign the paper, see if he don't! They're coming! Gets under the sofa. Enter Grossman and the Professor, Leoníd Fyódoritch and the Fat Lady, the Doctor, Sahátof and Anna Pávlovna. Simon stands near the door. LEONÍD FYÓDORITCH. Please come in, all you doubters! Though we have a new and accidentally discovered medium, I expect very important phenomena to-night. SAHÁTOF. That's very, very interesting. FAT LADY [pointing to Simon] _Mais il est très bien!_[12] [12] FAT LADY. But he looks quite nice. ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Yes, as a butler's assistant, but hardly ... SAHÁTOF. Wives never have any faith in their husbands' work. You don't believe in anything of this kind? ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Of course not. Kaptchítch, it is true, has something exceptional about him, but Heaven knows what all this is about! FAT LADY. No, Anna Pávlovna, permit me, you can't decide it in such a way. Before I was married, I once had a remarkable dream. Dreams, you know, are often such that you don't know where they begin and where they end; it was just such a dream that I ... Enter Vasíly Leoníditch and Petrístchef. FAT LADY. And much was revealed to me by that dream. Nowadays the young people [points to Petrístchef and Vasíly Leoníditch] deny everything. VASÍLY LEONÍDITCH. But look here, you know--now I, for instance, never deny anything! Eh, what? Betsy and Márya Konstantínovna enter, and begin talking to Petrístchef. FAT LADY. And how can one deny the supernatural? They say it is unreasonable. But what if one's reason is stupid; what then? There now, on Garden Street, you know ... why, well, it appeared every evening! My husband's brother--what do you call him? Not _beau-frère_--what's the other name for it?--I never can remember the names of these different relationships--well, he went there three nights running, and still he saw nothing; so I said to him ... LEONÍD FYÓDORITCH. Well, who is going to stay here? FAT LADY. I! I! SAHÁTOF. I. ANNA PÁVLOVNA [to Doctor] Do you mean to say you are going to stay? DOCTOR. Yes; I must see, if only once, what it is that Alexéy Vladímiritch has discovered in it. How can we deny anything without proofs? ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Then I am to take it to-night for certain? DOCTOR. Take what?... Oh, the powder. Yes, it would perhaps be better. Yes, yes, take it.... However, I shall come upstairs again. ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Yes please, do. [Loud] When it is over, _mesdames et messieurs_, I shall expect you to come to me upstairs to rest from your emotions, and then we will finish our rubber. FAT LADY. Oh, certainly. SAHÁTOF. Yes, thanks! Exit Anna Pávlovna. BETSY [to Petrístchef] You must stay, I tell you. I promise you something extraordinary. Will you bet? MÁRYA KONSTANTÍNOVNA. But you don't believe in it? BETSY. To-day I do. MÁRYA KONSTANTÍNOVNA [to Petrístchef] And do you believe?