"No! You must let me sit at your own table. I'll not have it on a tray. I want it on a tablecloth. I'm the landlady and I will be respected. Never mind if I'm drunk. I'm at least honest and a good wife to my husband." Varvara, smiling at once with contempt and fear, said: "Yes, we know." Ershova winked at Varvara, laughed hoarsely and snapped her fingers defiantly. She became more and more arrogant. "Cousin!" she shouted. "We know the sort of cousin you are. Why doesn't the Head-Master's wife come to see you, eh?" "Don't make so much noise," said Varvara. But Ershova began to shout even louder: "How dare you order me about? I'm in my own house and I can do what I please. If I like I can have you thrown out so that there'd not even be a smell of you left behind. Only I'm too kind-hearted." Meanwhile Volodin and Prepolovenskaya sat timidly at the window in silence. Prepolovenskaya smiled slightly, looking at the shrew out of the corner of her eye, but pretended that she was looking into the street. Volodin sat with an injured expression on his face. Ershova eventually became more good-humoured and gave Varvara a friendly slap on the shoulder, saying with a drunken smile: "Now listen to me. Put me at your table and treat me like a lady. Then give me some _zhamochki_[3], and treat your landlady decently. Come, my dear girl!" "Here are some tarts," said Varvara. "I don't want tarts!" shouted Ershova. "I want some _zhamochki_." And she waved her hands. "The masters have them, and I want some too." "I haven't any _zhamochki_ for you," answered Varvara, growing bolder as the landlady became more good-tempered. "Now here's some tarts. Gorge yourself!" Ershova suddenly perceived the door into the dining-room, and cried out furiously: "Out of my way, viper!" She pushed Varvara aside and threw herself towards the door. There was no time to restrain her. Lowering her head and clenching her fists, she broke into the dining-room, throwing back the door with a crash. There she paused just inside the door and saw the soiled wall-paper. She uttered a long "whew" of astonishment. She stood with her hands on her hips and her legs crossed, shouting with rage: "Then it's true that you're leaving!" "Who put that into your head, Irinya Stepanovna?" said Varvara, trembling. "We've no such idea. Someone's been fooling you." "We're not going anywhere," declared Peredonov. "We're quite contented here." The landlady did not listen to them, she walked up to the panic-stricken Varvara, and shook her fist in her face. Peredonov got behind Varvara. He would have run away, but he wanted to see if Varvara and the landlady would come to blows. "I will step on one of your legs," exclaimed the landlady, furiously, "and tear you in half with the other." "Be quiet, Irinya Stepanovna," said Varvara, persuasively. "We have visitors." "You can bring your visitors along too," said the landlady. "I'll do the same to them."