FIRST GUEST. I shall get a drink, old lady, and then home I go! I won't have anything to do with these belles of yours. How the devil can a man think of love who hasn't had a drop to drink since dinner? AVDOTIA. Come on, we will go and find something. FIRST GUEST. Sh! Softly! I think the brandy is in the sideboard in the dining-room. We will find George! Sh! They go out through the door on the left. Enter ANNA and LVOFF through the door on the right. ANNA. No, they will be glad to see us. Is no one here? Then they must be in the garden. LVOFF. I should like to know why you have brought me into this den of wolves. This is no place for you and me; honourable people should not be subjected to such influences as these. ANNA. Listen to me, Mr. Honourable Man. When you are escorting a lady it is very bad manners to talk to her the whole way about nothing but your own honesty. Such behaviour may be perfectly honest, but it is also tedious, to say the least. Never tell a woman how good you are; let her find it out herself. My Nicholas used only to sing and tell stories when he was young as you are, and yet every woman knew at once what kind of a man he was. LVOFF. Don't talk to me of your Nicholas; I know all about him! ANNA. You are a very worthy man, but you don't know anything at all. Come into the garden. He never said: "I am an honest man; these surroundings are too narrow for me." He never spoke of wolves' dens, called people bears or vultures. He left the animal kingdom alone, and the most I have ever heard him say when he was excited was: "Oh, how unjust I have been to-day!" or "Annie, I am sorry for that man." That's what he would say, but you-- ANNA and LVOFF go out. Enter AVDOTIA and FIRST GUEST through the door on the left. FIRST GUEST. There isn't any in the dining-room, so it must be somewhere in the pantry. We must find George. Come this way, through the sitting-room. AVDOTIA. Oh, how I should like to get my claws into her! They go out through the door on the right. MARTHA and BORKIN run in laughing from the garden. SHABELSK I comes mincing behind them, laughing and rubbing his hands. MARTHA. Oh, I am so bored! [Laughs loudly] This is deadly! Every one looks as if he had swallowed a poker. I am frozen to the marrow by this icy dullness. [She skips about] Let us do something! BORKIN catches her by the waist and kisses her cheek. SHABELSKI. [Laughing and snapping his fingers] Well, I'll be hanged! [Cackling] Really, you know! MARTHA. Let go! Let go, you wretch! What will the Count think? Stop, I say! BORKIN. Angel! Jewel! Lend me twenty-three hundred roubles. MARTHA. Most certainly not! Do what you please, but I'll thank you to leave my money alone. No, no, no! Oh, let go, will you? SHABELSKI. [Mincing around them] The little birdie has its charms! [Seriously] Come, that will do!