ing at Savva)_

What have you come here for?

SAVVA

For nothing that concerns you. You had better have a talk with him. He
is a chap that possesses a great deal of curiosity. He's not a fool,
either, but knows what's what.

LIPA _(looking searchingly at Savva)_

I know him well, I know him very well.

KONDRATY

To my regret I must admit it's true. I have the unenviable fortune of
being known as a man who does not observe the outer forms of conduct.
It is on account of that characteristic I was fired from my position
as government clerk, and it's on that account I am now frequently
condemned to live for weeks on nothing but bread and water. I cannot
act in secret. I am open and above-board. In fact, I fairly cry aloud
whatever I do. For example, the circumstances under which I met you,
Mr. Tropinin, are such that I am ashamed to recall them.

SAVVA

Don't recall them then.

KONDRATY _(to Lipa)_

I was lying in a mud puddle in all my dignity, like a regular hog.

LIPA _(disgusted)_

All right.

KONDRATY

But I am not ashamed to speak of it; first, because many people saw
it, and of course nobody took the trouble to get me out of it except
Savva Yegorovich, and secondly, because I regard this as my cross.

LIPA

A fine cross!

KONDRATY

Every man, Miss Olympiada, has his cross. It isn't so very nice to be
lying in a mud puddle. Dry ground is pleasanter every time. And do you
know, I think half of the water in that puddle was my own tears, and
my woeful lamentations made ripples on it--

SAVVA

That's not quite so, Kondraty. You were singing a song: "And we're
baptized of him in Jordan"--to a very jolly tune at that.

KONDRATY

You don't say! What of it? So much the worse. It shows to what depths
a man will descend.

SAVVA

Don't assume a melancholy air, father. You're quite a jovial fellow by
nature, and the assumption of grief doesn't go well with your face, I
assure you.

KONDRATY

True, Savva Yegorovich, I was a jolly fellow; but that was before I
entered the monastery. As soon as I came here I took a tumble, so to
speak; I lost my joviality and serenity and learned to know what real
sorrow is.

_[Tony enters and remains standing in the doorway gazing ecstatically
at the monk._

SAVVA

Why so?

KONDRATY _(stepping nearer and speaking in a lowered voice)_ There is
no God here--there's only the devil. This is a terrible place to live
in, on my word it is, Mr. Savva. I am a