LIPA _(looking searchingly at Savva)_ I know him well, I know him very well. KONDRATY To my regret I must admit it's true. I have the unenviable fortune of being known as a man who does not observe the outer forms of conduct. It is on account of that characteristic I was fired from my position as government clerk, and it's on that account I am now frequently condemned to live for weeks on nothing but bread and water. I cannot act in secret. I am open and above-board. In fact, I fairly cry aloud whatever I do. For example, the circumstances under which I met you, Mr. Tropinin, are such that I am ashamed to recall them. SAVVA Don't recall them then. KONDRATY _(to Lipa)_ I was lying in a mud puddle in all my dignity, like a regular hog. LIPA _(disgusted)_ All right. KONDRATY But I am not ashamed to speak of it; first, because many people saw it, and of course nobody took the trouble to get me out of it except Savva Yegorovich, and secondly, because I regard this as my cross. LIPA A fine cross! KONDRATY Every man, Miss Olympiada, has his cross. It isn't so very nice to be lying in a mud puddle. Dry ground is pleasanter every time. And do you know, I think half of the water in that puddle was my own tears, and my woeful lamentations made ripples on it-- SAVVA That's not quite so, Kondraty. You were singing a song: "And we're baptized of him in Jordan"--to a very jolly tune at that. KONDRATY You don't say! What of it? So much the worse. It shows to what depths a man will descend. SAVVA Don't assume a melancholy air, father. You're quite a jovial fellow by nature, and the assumption of grief doesn't go well with your face, I assure you. KONDRATY True, Savva Yegorovich, I was a jolly fellow; but that was before I entered the monastery. As soon as I came here I took a tumble, so to speak; I lost my joviality and serenity and learned to know what real sorrow is. _[Tony enters and remains standing in the doorway gazing ecstatically at the monk._ SAVVA Why so? KONDRATY _(stepping nearer and speaking in a lowered voice)_ There is no God here--there's only the devil. This is a terrible place to live in, on my word it is, Mr. Savva. I am a man with a large experience. It's no easy thing to frighten me. But I am afraid to walk in the hall at night. SAVVA What devil? KONDRATY The ordinary one. To you, educated people, he appears in a nobler aspect of course; but to us plain, simple people, he reveals himself as he really is. SAVVA With horns? KONDRATY