TANYA. 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, LEONID FYODORITCH and the FAT LADY, the DOCTOR, SAHATOF and ANNA PAVLOVNA. SIMON stands near the door. LEONID FYODORITCH. Please come in, all you doubters! Though we have a new and accidentally discovered medium, I expect very important phenomena to-night. SAHATOF. That's very, very interesting. FAT LADY (pointing to SIMON). Mais il est tres bien! [11] ANNA PAVLOVNA. Yes, as a butler's assistant, but hardly.... SAHATOF. Wives never have any faith in their husbands' work. You don't believe in anything of this kind? ANNA PAVLOVNA. Of course not. Kaptchitch, it is true, has something exceptional about him, but Heaven knows what all this is about! FAT LADY. No, Anna Pavlovna, 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 VASILY LEONIDITCH and PETRISTCHEF. FAT LADY. And much was revealed to me by that dream. Nowadays the young people (points to PETRISTCHEF and VASILY LEONIDITCH) deny everything. VASILY LEONIDITCH. But look here, you know--now I, for instance, never deny anything! Eh, what? [BETSY and MARYA KONSTANTINOVNA enter, and begin talking to PETRISTCHEF. 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-frere-- 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.... LEONID FYODORITCH. Well, who is going to stay here? FAT LADY. I! I! SAHATOF. I. ANNA PAVLOVNA (to DOCTOR). Do you mean to say you are going to stay? DOCTOR. Yes; I must see, if only once, what it is that Alexey Vladimiritch has discovered in it. How can we deny anything without proof? ANNA PAVLOVNA. 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 PAVLOVNA. 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. SAHATOF. Yes, thanks! [Exit ANNA PAVLOVNA. BETSY (to PETRISTCHEF). You must stay, I tell you. I promise you something extraordinary. Will you bet? MARYA KONSTANTINOVNA. But you don't believe in it? BETSY. To-day I do. MARYA KONSTANTINOVNA (to PETRISTCHEF). And do you believe?