_Antìp._ Wild oats, I suppose? _Shiryàlov._ Worse than that, Antìp Antìpych, worse than that! I wouldn’t mind if he’d take to drinking; he couldn’t throw away so much on that; but he runs over head and ears into debt. Ah! little mother! what are young people coming to nowadays? _Stepanìda._ You’ve no one to blame but yourself, Paramòn Ferapòntych; you’ve regularly spoiled the boy; you should have broken him in when he was a child, it’s too late now. He should have gone into town with your shopmen, and learned to keep his eyes open and bring in money. _Shiryàlov._ Ah! little mother! you see, he’s my only one. In these days a young man has to get into society. It was very different when we were young: we whipped our tops until we were eighteen; and then our elders took and married us and started us in business. Nowadays, a young man that’s had no schooling gets called a fool; the world’s grown so wise! And then you see, neighbour, God has blessed us; we’ve a tidy little fortune. What would people say if I couldn’t manage to give an only son learning, with all my capital? I don’t want to be worse than my neighbours. One’s always hearing that So-and-So’s sent his boy to a simminry and another’s sent his to the Commercial ’Cademy. So I sent my Sènka to a simminry, and paid my money down for a year in advance. And if you’ll believe it, ma’am, before three months was up, he cut an’ run; so I thought I’d eddicate him at home; and I got a tutor, cheap. But I’d nothing but ill luck, ma’am; the tutor turned out wild, and Sènka took to wheedling money out of his mother and going off on the spree with his tutor, now to the drink-shops, now to the gipsy wenches.... Well, of course I turned the tutor out o’ doors; and now I’m left to get on with my Sènka how I can. Dear Lord! dear Lord! how wicked the people are grown nowadays! [Illustration: SHIRYÀLOV: “LAST WINTER HE SPENT THREE HUNDRED ROUBLES ON GLOVES ALONE—_THREE HUN—DRED_ ROUBLES!” ] _Antìp._ He seems to have taken after his father! _Shiryàlov._ And indeed you wouldn’t believe what he costs me: a hundred here, two hundred there; just lately I paid his tailor a thousand roubles; it’s dreadful to think of; I don’t wear out a thousand roubles’ worth in ten years. I don’t know how it is; he can’t be content with a waistcoat that’s just a waistcoat and a coat that’s just a coat. Ah! it must be a judgment on me for my sins! (_Almost in a whisper._) Last winter he spent three hundred roubles on gloves alone—_three hun—dred_ roubles! _Stepanìda._ Dear! dear! dear! _Antìp._ Wh-whew! _Shiryàlov._ The worst of it is that they give him credit everywhere; they know that I can pay. He owes four thousand now in some restaurant or other. No fortune in the world would stand that sort of thing. (_Drinks tea; silence._) By the bye, Antìp Antìpych, did I tell you the joke? _Antìp._ What joke? _Shiryàlov._ About the Armenian. _Antìp._ No; what is it?