MADAM ULANBÉKOV. It's enough if there is one grain of truth in your words.
VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. It's all true, benefactress.
MADAM ULANBÉKOV. Fiddlesticks! not all—it can't be! You always make up more than half. But where were the servants?
VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. All of them, benefactress, were more or less drunk. No sooner had you gone to bed, than they all went to the fair and got tipsy. Gavrílovna, Potápych, all were drunk. What an example to the young!
MADAM ULANBÉKOV. This must be looked into thoroughly. Of course, I shouldn't have expected the least mischief of Leoníd. Quiet lads like him! Well, if he'd been a soldier, it would be pardonable; but as it is…. [She muses.
VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. And furthermore, benefactress, so far Grísha hasn't come back from the fair.
MADAM ULANBÉKOV. How's that? He didn't sleep at home?
VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. He did not, benefactress!
MADAM ULANBÉKOV. You lie, you lie, you lie! I'll drive you off the place!
VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. May I die in my tracks!