KATERINA. Ah, how she frightened me! I'm trembling all over, as if she were foretelling something for me.
VARVARA. Her curse fall on her own head, the old witch!
KATERINA. What was it she said, eh? what did she say?
VARVARA. It was all rubbish. It's silly to listen to her raving. She foretells evil like that to everyone. She was a sinner all her life from her youth up. You should hear the stories they tell about her. So now she's afraid of death. And she must try and frighten others with what she dreads herself. Why even the little street boys hide away from her; she shakes her stick at them and growls (mimicking) "you'll all burn in fire unquenchable!"
KATERINA (shrinking). Ah, ah, stop! I can't bear it!
VARVARA. There's nothing to be frightened of! An old fool....
KATERINA. I am afraid, terribly afraid! I seem to see her all the while before us. [Silence.
VARVARA (looking round). I say, brother doesn't come, and yonder there's a storm coming up.
KATERINA (in terror). A storm! Let us run home! Make haste!
VARVARA. Why, are you crazy? How can you show yourself at home without my brother?