VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. As if the mistress didn't love you, as if she didn't fondle you, more, if anything, than her own son! MADAM ULANBÉKOV. [_Stamping her foot_] Shhh!.... I'll turn you out! GRÍSHA. I want awfully to go to the fair; please let me, ma'am. MADAM ULANBÉKOV. Well, go along then! but come back early! GRÍSHA. Yes, ma'am. VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. Kiss the dear lady's hand, you blockhead! GRÍSHA. What are you trying to teach me for? I know my own business. [_He kisses the mistress's hand and goes out._ MADAM ULANBÉKOV. As for you, my dear, if I ever hear anything like this again, I'll have them drive you off the place with brooms. _She goes out._ VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA _remains standing in a stupor._ SCENE VI _The same, except_ MADAM ULANBÉKOV; _then_ LÍZA LEONÍD. Well, you caught it, didn't you? And you deserved it, too! VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. I'll have my turn yet. LÍZA _enters._ LÍZA. [_Quietly to_ LEONÍD] Nádya sent me to say that we'll come to the garden. LEONÍD. Give her a kiss from me. GAVRÍLOVNA. God give you health, master, for taking our part. Any wretch can insult us; but there's no one to take our part. You'll get a rich reward for that in the next world. LEONÍD. I'm always ready to help you. [_He goes out to the right, with a caper._ GAVRÍLOVNA. Thanks, my dear! [_She goes out with_ LÍZA, _to the left_. SCENE VII VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA _and_ POTÁPYCH VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. Why don't you insult me? They all insult me, why don't you? You heard how she herself wanted to flog me; "I'll have them do it with brooms," she said. May her words choke her! POTÁPYCH. What, I!.... I insult anybody! But as to the gentlefolk there ... I don't know, but perhaps they have to. VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. Do you see what's going on in this house! Do you see? Do you understand it, or don't you? Just now when I began to talk about Grísha, you heard how she began to roar? You heard how she began to hiss? POTÁPYCH. What's that to me? I, by the mistress's kindness, in her employ....I shall carry out all her orders.... What business is it of mine? I don't want to know anything that isn't my business. VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. But did you see how Nádya and Líza--the hussies!--looked at me? Did you see how the snakes looked? Ha! I must look after them, I must! [POTÁPYCH, _with a wave of his hand, goes out_] Bah! you! you old blockhead! What people! What people! There's no one to whom I can talk, and relieve my heart. [_She goes out_. III _Part of the garden; to the rear, a pond, on the shore of which is a boat. Starry night. A choral song is heard in the far distance. For a while the stage is empty._ SCENE I _Enter_ NÁDYA _and_ LÍZA LÍZA. Oh, Nádya, what's this we're doing? When the mistress hears of this, it'll be your last day on earth. NÁDYA. If you're afraid, take yourself home. LÍZA. No, I'll wait for you. But all the same, my girl, it's awful, no matter what you say! Lord preserve us when she finds it out.