_Advocate._ In w w-what con-d-dish’n? _Justice._ I must fine you three roubles. Please to leave the Court. _Advocate._ Prompt, just, and merciful. _INCOMPATIBILITY OF TEMPER._ [Illustration] PICTURES FROM MOSCOW LIFE. BY A. N. OSTRÒVSKY. PICTURE I. DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. PRÈZHNEV, _an old man, completely in his dotage, official of high rank; has lost the use of his limbs; is wheeled about in a chair_. SÒFIA IVÀNOVNA PRÈZHNEVA, _his wife, aged forty-five_. PAUL, _a young man, her son_. OUSTÌNYA FILIMÒNOVNA PERESHÌVKINA, _an elderly woman, formerly_ PAUL’S _nurse; now a kind of toady and hanger-on in several families_. _A large drawing-room; very rich paper-hangings, grown old and shabby, peeling off the walls. Polished parquet, sunk and uneven. Windows, left, looking into garden. Door opening on wooden balcony, with pillars. At back of stage, a door leading to hall. Door, right, to inner rooms. In narrow niches, little marble tables with bronze legs; over them hang long narrow pier-glasses with gilded frames. Furniture old, heavy, with gilding rubbed off. Old bronze-work on tables. Glass chandelier with lozenge-shaped drops. Two or three ivy-screens. A general appearance of former luxury now become shabby._ SCENE I. (PRÈZHNEV _asleep in wheel-chair beside window. Fur dressing-gown; white woollen rug over feet_. MADAME PRÈZHNEVA, _in elegant morning négligé, lies on sofa with a book_.)