RISPOLÓZHENSKY. Well, it was like this, my dear Agraféna Kondrátyevna: it isn't as if it were a proverb, in a kind of fable, but a real occurrence. I'll just take a thimbleful, Agraféna Kondrátyevna. [_Drinks._ AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. Help yourself, my dear sir, help yourself. RISPOLÓZHENSKY. [_Sits down_] There was an old man, a venerable old man--Here, I've forgotten where it was, my dear madam--only it was in some desert spot. He had twelve daughters, my dear madam; each younger than the other! He didn't have the strength to work himself; his wife, too, was very old, the children were still small; and one has to eat and drink. What they had was used up by the time they were old, and there was no one to give them food and drink. Where could they find refuge with their little children? Then he set to thinking this way, then that way.--No, my dear lady, that's where thinking won't do any good. "I'll go," he said, "to the crossroads; perhaps I can get something from charitable people." He sat all day. "God'll help you," they told him. Sits there another day "God'll help you!" Well, my dear lady, he began to murmur. AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. Holy saints! RISPOLÓZHENSKY. "Good Lord!" he said, "I'm no extortioner, I'm no usurer--it would be better," he said, "to lay hands on myself." AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. Merciful heavens! RISPOLÓZHENSKY. And lo! my dear madam, there came a dream to him in the night---- SCENE IX The same and BOLSHÓV BOLSHÓV. Ha, you here, sir? What's this you're preaching here? RISPOLÓZHENSKY. [_Bows_] I hope you're well, Samsón Sílych. USTÍNYA NAÚMOVNA. Why, my jewel! You seem to be growing thin. Or have you been crippled somehow? BOLSHÓV. [_Sitting down_] Must be I've caught cold, or perhaps my blood's in a bad way. AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. Well, Sysóy Psoich, and what happened to him next? RISPOLÓZHENSKY. Some other time, Agraféna Kondrátyevna, some other time I'll finish telling; I'll run in some day about dusk and tell you about it fully. BOLSHÓV. What's the matter with you; trying to be sanctimonious? Ha, ha, ha! It's time you came to! AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. There, now, you're beginning! You won't let us have a heart-to-heart talk together. BOLSHÓV. Heart-to-heart talk! Ha, ha, ha! But you just ask him how his case was lost from court; there's the story he'll tell you better. RISPOLÓZHENSKY. On the contrary, it was not lost! That's not true, Samsón Sílych! BOLSHÓV. Then what did they turn you out for?