SCENE VII
VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA and POTÁPYCH
VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. Why don't you insult me? They all insult me, why don't you? You heard how she herself wanted to flog me; "I'll have them do it with brooms," she said. May her words choke her!
POTÁPYCH. What, I!…. I insult anybody! But as to the gentlefolk there … I don't know, but perhaps they have to.
VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. Do you see what's going on in this house! Do you see? Do you understand it, or don't you? Just now when I began to talk about Grísha, you heard how she began to roar? You heard how she began to hiss?
POTÁPYCH. What's that to me? I, by the mistress's kindness, in her employ….I shall carry out all her orders…. What business is it of mine? I don't want to know anything that isn't my business.
VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. But did you see how Nádya and Líza—the hussies!—looked at me? Did you see how the snakes looked? Ha! I must look after them, I must! [POTÁPYCH, with a wave of his hand, goes out] Bah! you! you old blockhead! What people! What people! There's no one to whom I can talk, and relieve my heart. [She goes out.
III
Part of the garden; to the rear, a pond, on the shore of which is a boat. Starry night. A choral song is heard in the far distance. For a while the stage is empty.