ake gives him back two.... He
was holding her white, little hand, and she was all fiery and kept on
getting closer and closer, too.... "I love you," she says. And he, like
one of the damned, walks about from one place to another and brags,
the coward, about his happiness.... Gives one man a rouble, and two to
another.... Gives me money for a horse. Let off everybody's debts....

BORTSOV. Oh, why tell them all about it? These people haven't any
sympathy.... It hurts!

KUSMA. It's nothing, sir! They asked me! Why shouldn't I tell them?
But if you are angry I won't... I won't.... What do I care for them....
[Post-bells are heard.]

FEDYA. Don't shout; tell us quietly....

KUSMA. I'll tell you quietly.... He doesn't want me to, but it can't be
helped.... But there's nothing more to tell. They got married, that's
all. There was nothing else. Pour out another drop for Kusma the stony!
[Drinks] I don't like people getting drunk! Why the time the wedding
took place, when the gentlefolk sat down to supper afterwards, she went
off in a carriage... [Whispers] To the town, to her lover, a lawyer....
Eh? What do you think of her now? Just at the very moment! She would be
let off lightly if she were killed for it!

MERIK. [Thoughtfully] Well... what happened then?

KUSMA. He went mad.... As you see, he started with a fly, as they say,
and now it's grown to a bumble-bee. It was a fly then, and now--it's
a bumble-bee.... And he still loves her. Look at him, he loves her! I
expect he's walking now to the town to get a glimpse of her with one
eye.... He'll get a glimpse of her, and go back....

[The post has driven up to the in.. The POSTMAN enters and has a drink.]

TIHON. The post's late to-day!

[The POSTMAN pays in silence and goes out. The post drives off, the
bells ringing.]

A VOICE FROM THE CORNER. One could rob the post in weather like
this--easy as spitting.

MERIK. I've been alive thirty-five years and I haven't robbed the post
once.... [Pause] It's gone now... too late, too late....

KUSMA. Do you want to smell the inside of a prison?

MERIK. People rob and don't go to prison. And if I do go! [Suddenly]
What else?

KUSMA. Do you mean that unfortunate?

MERIK. Who else?

KUSMA. The second reason, brothers, why he was ruined was because of
his brother-in-law, his sister's husband.... He took it into his head to
stand surety at the bank for 30,000 roubles for his brother-in-law. The
brother-in-law's a thief.