_Fèkla._ He certainly hasn’t gone out of the room! I was sitting in the hall. _Agàfia._ Then where is he? _Fèkla._ I’m sure I don’t know. He can’t have gone out by the back door. I wonder if he’s sitting in Arìna Pantelèymovna’s room? _Agàfia._ Auntie! Auntie! (_Enter_ ARÌNA, _dressed for wedding_.) _Arìna._ What’s the matter? _Agàfia._ Is Ivàn Kouzmìch in your room? _Arìna._ No, he must be here; he hasn’t come into my room. _Fèkla._ Well, I know he didn’t go through the hall, for I was sitting there. _Agàfia._ But you see yourself he isn’t here. (_Enter_ KOCHKARYÒV.) _Koch._ What’s the matter? _Agàfia._ We can’t find Ivàn Kouzmìch. _Koch._ Can’t find him? Has he gone out? _Agàfia._ No, he hasn’t gone out either. _Koch._ What do you mean? Not here and not gone out? _Fèkla._ I can’t think where he can have got to. I was in the hall the whole time; never left it for a minute. _Arìna._ Well, he certainly didn’t go out by the back stairs. _Koch._ Well, but, the devil take it, he couldn’t vanish without going out of the room! I expect he’s hidden himself.... Ivàn Kouzmìch! Where are you? Leave off fooling! Come out, quick! There’s no time for jokes; we ought to be at church by now! (_Looks into cupboard, and peeps askance under chairs._) No making it out! But he can’t have gone away; he can’t possibly have gone away! He’s here; there’s his hat in the next room, I put it there on purpose. _Arìna._ We’d better ask the girl, she was standing at the street door; perhaps she knows something about it.... Douniàshka! Douniàshka!... (_Enter_ DOUNIÀSHKA.) Where’s Ivàn Kouzmìch? Have you seen him? _Doun._ Please’m, the gentleman jumped out of window. (AGÀFIA _screams and clasps her hands_.) _All three together._ The window?... _Doun._ Yes’m. And if you please’m, when he was out he took a _drozhki_ and drove away. _Arìna._ Are you speaking the truth? _Koch._ It’s a lie! It can’t be! _Doun._ No, it’s not then; he did jump out. And the man as keeps the general shop saw him too. He took a _drozhki_ for ten kopecks, and he drove away. _Arìna_ (_advancing to_ KOCHKARYÒV). I suppose, then, little father, that you meant to play off a joke on us, to make a laughing-stock of us? You’ve come here to disgrace us, is that it? Sir, I’ve lived for more than fifty years, and I’ve never been put to such shame as this. And, little father, I’ll spit in your face if you call yourself an honest man! You’re a villain and a scoundrel if you call yourself an honest man! To shame a girl publicly—before every one! I—a peasant wouldn’t do such a thing! And you a noble! All the nobility you’ve got is good for nothing but lies and cheating and rascally tricks! (_Exit, furious, taking the bride with her._ KOCHKARYÒV _stands as petrified_.)