[Footnote 2: Hope.]
GAVRÍLOVNA, the housekeeper; an elderly woman, plump, with an open countenance.
GRÍSHA, a boy of nineteen, a favorite of the mistress, dandified in dress, wearing a watch with a gold chain. He is handsome, curly-headed, with a foolish expression.
NEGLIGÉNTOV, a clerk in a government office; a very disreputable young man.
LÍZA, a housemaid, not bad-looking, but very stout and snub-nosed; in a white dress, of which the bodice is short and ill-fitting. About her neck is a little red kerchief; her hair is very much pomaded.
A peasant girl, a footman, and a housemaid: mute personages.
The action takes place in the springtime, at the suburban estate of MADAM ULANBÉKOV
A PROTÉGÉE OF THE MISTRESS
I
Part of a densely grown garden; on the right benches; at the back a rail fence, separating the garden from a field.