PODKHALYÚZIN. Think about what, ma'am? LÍPOCHKA. How can I help thinking? PODKHALYÚZIN. Why, you don't need to think! LÍPOCHKA. I'll tell you what, Lázar Elizárych! PODKHALYÚZIN. What're your orders, ma'am? LÍPOCHKA. Carry me off on the quiet. PODKHALYÚZIN. But why on the quiet, ma'am, when your papa and mamma are so willing? LÍPOCHKA. That's quite the thing to do. Well, if you don't want to carry me off, why, let it go as it is. PODKHALYÚZIN. Olimpiáda Samsónovna, just let me kiss your little hand! [_He kisses it; then he jumps up and runs to the door_] Daddy, sir! LÍPOCHKA. Lázar Elizárych! Lázar Elizárych! Come here! PODKHALYÚZIN. What do you want, ma'am? LÍPOCHKA. Oh, if you knew, Lázar Elizárych, what my life here is like! Mamma says one thing one day, and another the next; papa, when he isn't drunk, has nothing to say; but when he's drunk he's apt to beat you at any moment. How's a cultivated young lady going to endure such a life? Now, if I could marry a nobleman, I'd go out of this house, and could forget about all that. But now everything will go on as before. PODKHALYÚZIN. No, ma'am, Olimpiáda Samsónovna; it won't be that way! Olimpiáda Samsónovna, as soon as we've celebrated the wedding, we'll move into our own house, ma'am. And then we won't let 'em boss us. No, here's an end to all that, ma'am! That'll do for them--they ran things in their day, now it's our turn. LÍPOCHKA. Just look here, Lázar Elizárych, we shall live by ourselves at our house, and they by themselves at their house. We'll do everything fashionably, and they, just as they please. PODKHALYÚZIN. That's the idea, ma'am. LÍPOCHKA. Well, call papa now. [_She rises and prinks before the mirror._ PODKHALYÚZIN. Papa! Papa! Sir! Mamma! SCENE VI _The same,_ BOLSHÓV, _and_ AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA PODKHALYÚZIN. [_Goes to meet_ SAMSÓN SÍLYCH _and throws his arms about him in an embrace_] Olimpiáda Samsónovna has agreed, sir! AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. I'm coming, my dears, I'm coming! BOLSHÓV. Well, that's talking! Just the thing! I know what I'm doing; it's not for you to teach me. PODKHALYÚZIN. [To AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA] Mamma, ma'am! Let me kiss your hand! AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. Kiss away, my dear; they're both clean. Ah, you blessed child, has it been long since you decided? Ah? Good heavens! What's this? I absolutely didn't know how to decide this matter. Oh, my own little darling, you! LÍPOCHKA. Mamma, I positively didn't know that Lázar Elizárych was such a well-educated gentleman! But now I see at once that he's infinitely more respectful than the others. AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. Well, well, well, you little goose! As if your father would wish you any harm! Ah, mamma's little dove! What a little story, eh? Oh, my holy saints! What in the world is this? Fomínishna! Fomínishna! FOMÍNISHNA. Coming, coming, my dear, coming! [_She comes in._