ou expressly for complaining. Much I care for you! One--two--

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA. What! you keep on dancing, and talk impudently into
the bargain! Stop it this minute! It'll be so much the worse for you; I'll
grab you by the skirt, and tear off the whole train.

LIPOCHKA. Well, tear it, and much good may it do you! You'll simply have to
sew it up again, and that's all there is to it! [_She sits down_] Phew!
phew! my, I'm soaked through! as if I'd been pulling a van! Ouf! Mamma,
give me a handkerchief to wipe off the perspiration.

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA. Wait, I'll wipe it off myself. You've half killed
yourself! And it's just as if somebody were making you do it. Since you
don't respect your mother, you might at least respect these walls. Your
father, my dear, has to make a great effort even to move his legs; but you
skip about here like a jumping-jack!

LIPOCHKA. Go away with your advice! How can I act according to your
notions? Do you want me to get sick? That would be all right if I were a
doctor's wife. Ouf! What disgusting ideas you have! Bah! What a woman you
are, mamma, drat it! Honestly, I sometimes blush for your stupidity!

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA. What a darling child you are! Just consider how
you're insulting your mother! Ah, you stupid chatterbox! Is it right to
dishonor your parents with such words? Was it for this I brought you into
the world, taught you, and guarded you as carefully as if you were a
butterfly?

LIPOCHKA. You didn't teach me--strangers did; that'll do, if you please.
You yourself, to tell the truth, had no bringing up. What of it? You bore a
child--what was I then?--a child without understanding, I didn't understand
the ways of society. But I grew up, I looked upon society manners, and I
saw that I was far more educated than others. Why should I show too much
indulgence for your foolishness? Why, indeed! Much reason for it, I must
say!

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA. Let up, let up, you shameless girl! You'll drive me
out of patience; I'll go straight to your father, throw myself at his feet,
and say: "Samson, dear, there's no living because of our daughter!"

LIPOCHKA. Yes, there's no living for you! I imagine so. But do you give me
any chance to live? Why did you send away my suitor? Could there have
been a better match? Wasn't he a Coopid[1]? What did you find in him that
was soft?

[Footnote 1: An attempt to reproduce Lipochka's illiterate pronunciation
of the Russian word.]

AG