o do so, but, nevertheless, I don't approve of this system.
I shall always say loudly that it's unjust, unjust.

LEONID. Why are Nadya's eyes red from crying?

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA. She hasn't been flogged for a long time.

MADAM ULANBEKOV. That's none of your business, my dear. Nadya, go away,
you're not needed here.

[NADYA _goes out._]

LEONID. Well, I know why: you want to marry her off.

MADAM ULANBEKOV. Whether I do or not, my dear, is my own business.
Furthermore, I do not like to have any one meddle in my arrangements.

VASILISA PEREGRINOVNA. What a clever young man you are; you know
everything, you get into everything!

LEONID. Indeed, mamma dear, I don't mean to meddle in your arrangements.
Only he's a drunkard.

MADAM ULANBEKOV. And that, again, is none of your business. Leave that to
your mother's judgment.

LEONID. I'm only sorry for her, mamma.

MADAM ULANBEKOV. All very fine, my dear; but I should like to know from
whom you heard that I'm going to marry NADYA. If one of the housemaids
has....

LEONID. No, mamma, no.

MADAM ULANBEKOV. How could you find out otherwise? How did that get out?
[_To_ GAVRILOVNA] Find out without fail!

LEONID. No, indeed, mamma; the man she's going to marry told me.

MADAM ULANBEKOV. What sort of a man?

LEONID. I don't know what sort! He said he was a clerk in a government
office.... a peculiar surname: NEGLIGENTOV. What a funny fellow he is! He
says he's your godson, and that he's afraid of nobody. He's dancing in the
garden now, drunk.

MADAM ULANBEKOV. Drunk, in my house!

LEONID. If you want, I'll invite him in. Potapych, call NEGLIGENTOV! He
said that you were at his uncle's to-day, and that you promised to give him
Nadya. Already he's reckoning, in anticipation, how much income he will get
in the court, or "savings," as he says. What a funny fellow! He showed me
how they taught him at school. Do you want me to bring him in?

_Enter_ POTAPYCH _and_ NEGLIGENTOV.

SCENE IV

_The same,_ NEGLIGENTOV _and_ POTAPYCH

MADAM ULANBEKOV. Oh, oh, how disgusting! Don't come near me!

NEGLIGENTOV. I'm sent from uncle to thank you for your bounty.

LEONID. He says, mamma, that they taught him a good deal, only it was
impossible for him to learn anything.

NEGLIGENTOV. Impossible; from my birth I had no aptitude for the sciences.
I received from fifty to a hundred birch rods nearly every day, but they
didn't quicken my understanding.

LEONID. Oh,