SCENE II
ARÍNA and PELAGÉYA EGÓROVNA
PELAGÉYA EGÓROVNA. Come along, Arinushka, and help me to get the table ready. Yes, I'll sit down and rest—I'm tired.
ARÍNA. Of course you are tired, my dear! Day in, day out, on your feet! You aren't as young as you were once!
PELAGÉYA EGÓROVNA. [Seating herself on the sofa] Oh! Tell them to send the big samovar to the maids' room—the very biggest; and find Annushka and send her to me.
ARÍNA. Certainly, certainly.
PELAGÉYA EGÓROVNA. Yes, go along! Go along! Oh, I can't stand it! [ARÍNA goes out] My head's fairly splitting! Nothing but sorrow—and here comes more trouble! Yes, yes, I'm worried to death! Oh, oh, oh! I'm tired out, absolutely tired out! I've a lot to do, and my head's just spinning. I'm needed here, and I'm needed there, and I don't know what to begin on! Really—yes—[Sits and tries to think] What a husband for her! What a husband! Oh, oh, oh! How can you expect her to love him! Do you think she is hankering after his money? She is a girl now—in the bloom of youth—and I suppose her heart beats now and then! What she ought to have now is a man she can love—even if he's poor—that would be life! That would be paradise!
ANNA IVÁNOVNA comes in.