SCENE VI
The same and TISHKA
PODKHALYÚZIN. Put all this in order! Well, let's go, Sysóy Psoich!
TISHKA is about to carry away the vodka.
RISPOLÓZHENSKY. Wait, wait! Eh, my boy, what an idiot you are! If you see that a fellow wants to drink, just wait a bit. You just wait a bit. You're young yet, but you just be polite and condescending. Lázar Elizárych, I'll just take a thimbleful.
PODKHALYÚZIN. Help yourself, only hurry up; I'm afraid he'll come.
RISPOLÓZHENSKY. Right away, my dear Lázar Elizárych, right away! [Drinks and smacks his lips] But it would be better to take it with us. [They go out.
TISHKA arranges something or other; from above descend USTÍNYA NAÚMOVNA and FOMÍNISHNA. TISHKA goes out.
FOMÍNISHNA. Now do fix it up for her, Ustinya Naúmovna! You see the girl is all worked up; and, indeed, it's time, my dear. Youth isn't a bottomless kettle, and they say it gets empty. I can say that from my own experience. I got married when I was thirteen; but in another month she'll have passed her nineteenth year. Why let her pine away for nothing? Others of her age have long since borne children. And so, my dear, why let her pine away?
USTÍNYA NAÚMOVNA. I keep thinking about that myself, my jewel; but the thing isn't held up on my account; I have a whole pack of suitors, all right. But, confound it, she and her mother are mighty particular.