SCENE III
The same and FOMÍNISHNA
FOMÍNISHNA. Just guess, my dear Agraféna Kondrátyevna, who's come to call on us!
AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. I can't say. Do you think I'm a witch at guessing,
Fomínishna?
LÍPOCHKA. Why don't you ask me? Am I stupider than you or mamma?
FOMÍNISHNA. The fact is, I don't know how to tell you. You're pretty strong on talk; but when it comes to action you aren't there! I asked you, and asked you, to give me just a handkerchief—nothing expensive: two heaps of stuff are lying around on your closet floor now without any care; but it didn't do any good; it's always give it to strangers, give it to strangers!
AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. There, now, Fomínishna, I'll never make this out till doomsday.
LÍPOCHKA. Let her go; she had a drink of beer after breakfast, and so she's getting fuzzy in her head.
FOMÍNISHNA. That's all right; what are you laughing at? How's it coming out, Agraféna Kondrátyevna? Sometimes the beginning is worse than the end.
AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. One can never find out anything from you! As soon as you begin to talk, we have to stop up our ears! Now, who was it who came here?
LÍPOCHKA. A man or a woman?
FOMÍNISHNA. You can never see anything but men! Where in the world did one ever see a man wearing a widow's bonnet? This is a widow's affair—so what should her name be?
LÍPOCHKA. Naturally, a woman without a husband, a widow.
FOMÍNISHNA. So I was right? And it comes out that it is a woman!
LÍPOCHKA. What a senseless creature! Well, who is the woman?
FOMÍNISHNA. There, there now, you're clever, but no guesser; it couldn't be anybody else but Ustinya Naúmovna.
LÍPOCHKA. Ah, mamma, how lucky!
AGRAFÉNA KONDRÁTYEVNA. Where has she been all this time? Bring her in quickly, Fomínishna.
FOMÍNISHNA. She'll appear herself in a second. She stopped in the yard, quarrelling with the porter; he didn't open the door quickly enough.