lways said I could not
stand the expense that now everybody assumes. If a man conducts his
business honestly, he makes little profit; and as for a dishonest
business, I am not fit for that! So I have suffered one reverse after
another; and where I was most vulnerable I have been hit at last.

CHACHO. Heavens! what do I hear? Why don't I sink into the earth?

OSSEP. In our line of trade only a few persons carry on their business
with their own money. Most of us have to borrow. When I sell goods to
one, I pay my debt to the other. I sell goods to the third and pay to
the fourth; and so it goes in a circle, like a wheel drawing water,
until one falls in the hands of a man who draws the needle out of the
knitting and everything falls in pieces. Who is in a position to fight
against such conditions? One must pay the store rent and the clerk's
salary, and beside that the interest on the working capital. Then there
are the goods that are spoiled or stolen--and here at home! [_Striking
the cards_.] All this rubbish and more beside! [_Striking the table
again._] And the women are to blame for all this; if my wife had not
promised 7,000 rubles, without my knowledge, the betrothal would not
have taken place, and this bad luck would not have come to me. But where
does one find among our women insight and forethought? For model women
give me some foreign countries. There the women stand by the men in
everything: the wife of a cook is a cook; the wife of a writer, a
writer; the wife of a merchant is in every case a merchant. They earn
jointly and spend jointly. With us the man is here only to make money
for them, so that they [_striking the table_] may kill time with foolish
things like this.

CHACHO. Say, rather, that times are changed; for the men also sit at the
club all day and play cards.

OSSEP. Ho! ho! As though women did not play cards also! Formerly the
cards were solely our diversion; but they have taken them away from us.
Don't worry yourself; with God's help they will be learning to play
billiards. Why do you dwell upon the fact that the men play cards? One
in a thousand plays; while of a thousand women, nine hundred play. Men
are always more moderate. They see that the times are hard, and have
given up most of their earlier pleasures. Where are the banquets that
used to be given, one after another? Where are the drinking-places where
the music played? They have given them up; and the women are just like
they were, on