OLIMPIÁDA SAMSÓNOVNA. They've brought me a new cloak; you and I ought to go
Friday to Sokolniki.
PODKHALYÚZIN. Of course, most certainly we'll go, ma'am; and we'll drive in the park on Sundays. You see our carriage is worth a thousand rubles, and the horses a thousand, and the harness mounted with silver—just let 'em look! Tishka! My pipe. [TISHKA goes out. PODKHALYÚZIN sits down beside OLIMPIÁDA SAMSÓNOVNA] Just so, ma'am, Olimpiáda Samsónovna; you just let 'em watch us.
[Silence.]
OLIMPIÁDA SAMSÓNOVNA. Well, why don't you kiss me, Lázar Elizárych?
PODKHALYÚZIN. Why, sure! Permit me, ma'am! With great pleasure! If you please, your little hand, ma'am! [He kisses it. Silence] Olimpiáda Samsónovna, say something to me in the French dialect, ma'am!
OLIMPIÁDA SAMSÓNOVNA. What shall I say to you?
PODKHALYÚZIN. Oh, say anything—any little thing, ma'am. It's all the same to me, ma'am!
OLIMPIÁDA SAMSÓNOVNA. Kom voo zet zholi!
PODKHALYÚZIN. What does that mean, ma'am?
OLIMPIÁDA SAMSÓNOVNA. How nice you are!