_Madame P._ Ah, that is the question. I know you well, Paul. Why are you so highly educated? Why have you such a sensitive nature? It will make you unhappy all your life long. There is no mate for you! To win your love and make you happy, a girl would need too many virtues. _Paul._ You perhaps imagine, _Maman_, that domestic felicity has attractions for me? I’m not a child; I am twenty-one. That is too Arcadian! (_Bursts out laughing._) I simply want money. _Madame P._ None the less, my dear one, I know your character; I know that you would not care to marry any sort of person. _Paul._ Any one you like; I want money in order to be _comme il faut_; in order to play my proper part in society—in a word, to do that for which I am fitted. I do not know how to save up money; I only know how to spend it with elegance and dignity. For that I have all the necessary gifts. I have tact, I have taste, I am fitted to take a leading position in society. _Madame P._ Still, my dear——(_Enter_ FOOTMAN.) _Footman._ Pereshìvkina asks to see madame. _Madame P._ She always comes at the wrong time! _Paul._ We shall have time to talk afterwards. _Madame P._ Let her come in. (_Exit_ FOOTMAN. _Enter_ PERESHÌVKINA.) _Madame P._ What is it, Oustìnya Filimònovna? _Pereshìvkina_ (_kisses_ PRÈZHNEVA _on the shoulder, and then stands a little back_.) I came to ask after your health, little mother; I never forget my benefactors. _Paul._ Well, old vinegar face, where have you come from? _Pereshìvkina._ Ah, Mr. Paul, you’re always full of your jokes! _Paul._ She actually expects one to talk seriously with her! _Pereshìvkina._ I have a friend, little mother, who makes dimmy-tule. (_Paul laughs._) Laugh away, little father; it’s a fine thing to laugh at an old woman.... So I thought perhaps you’d like to buy some; I get it cheap. It’s capital quality, and very wide. Shall I bring you some? You won’t get it for the same price down town. _Madame P._ Very well; I’ll look at it. _Paul._ How much money have you hoarded up, old hag? _Pereshìvkina._ “Old hag,” now, is it! _Paul._ Why, dear me! You’re not thinking of getting married, are you? _Pereshìvkina._ It’s not right of you, sir, to speak to me like that! I’m an old woman; and I have carried you in my arms. _Paul._ She’s going to get offended now; that’ll be the next thing. _Madame P._ Let her alone, my dear. _Pereshìvkina._ Never mind, little mother, never mind. Let him do as he likes, he was always such a one to joke. When he was quite a little fellow he set my cap on fire behind. _Paul._ Ah! so you haven’t forgotten. _Pereshìvkina._ Not I. Why, you burnt off all my hair, and even my face got scorched. But you needn’t laugh at me, sir. Maybe I shall come in useful to you yet. _Paul._ Why, what use can I make of you? Stick you up in the kitchen garden for a scarecrow?