, keep still. You have sung your song--now keep quiet.

_[Lipa enters, opens the window, removes the flowers, and looks out
into the street. Then she lights the lamp._

TONY

Who is it? Is that you, Lipa? Lipa, eh, Lipa, where are they going?

LIPA

They are coming here for the feast-day. You had better go to bed,
Tony, or father will see you and scold you.

SPERANSKY

Big crowds, aren't they?

LIPA

Yes. But it's so dark, you can't see. Why are you so pale, Mr.
Speransky? It is positively painful to look at you.

SPERANSKY

That's how I feel, Miss Lipa.

_[A cautious knock is heard at the window._

LIPA _(opening the window)_

Who is there?

TONY _(to Speransky)_

Keep quiet, keep quiet.

KING FRIAR _(thrusting his smiling face through the window)_ Is Savva
Yegorovich in? I wanted to ask him to come with me to the woods.

LIPA

No. Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Vassya? To-morrow is a big
feast-day in your monastery and you--

YOUNG FRIAR _(smiling)_

There are plenty of people in the monastery without me. Please tell
Mr. Savva that I have gone to the ravine to catch fireflies. Ask him
to call out: "Ho, ho!"

LIPA

What do you want fireflies for?

YOUNG FRIAR

Why, to scare the monks with. I'll put two fireflies next to each
other like eyes, and they'll think it's, the devil. Tell him, please,
to call: "Ho, ho, ho!" _(He disappears in the darkness)_

LIPA _(shouting after him)_

He can't come to-day. _(To Speransky)_ Gone already--ran off.

SPERANSKY

They buried three in the cemetery to-day, Miss Olympiada.

LIPA

Have you seen Savva?

SPERANSKY

No, I am sorry to say I haven't. I say, they buried three people
to-day. One old man--perhaps you knew him--Peter Khvorostov?

LIPA

Yes, I knew him. So he's dead?

SPERANSKY

Yes, and two children. The women wept a great deal.

LIPA

What did they die of?

SPERANSKY

I am sorry, but I don't know. It didn't interest me. Some children's
disease, I suppose. When children die, Miss Olympiada, they turn all
blue and look as if they wanted to cry. The faces of grown people are
tranquil, but children's faces are not. Why is that so?

LIPA

I don't know--I've never noticed it.

SPERANSKY

It's a very interesting phenomenon.

LIPA

There's father now. I told you to go to bed. Now I've got to listen to
your brawling. I'll get out.

_(Exit. Enter Yegor Tropinin)_

YEGOR

Who lighted the lamp?

SPERANSKY