Countess Don't avoid the offer I'm making you any more. Respond to me exactly. You don't like to have your niece around. I'm going to take her off your hands and marry her off in the country. Won't you give her some wedding present?
Widow
This is the fourth day of my widowhood—the fourth day isn't it, Lucy?
Lucy
The fourth, yes.
Widow (to Countess)
Well, Madame, since then I haven't had any nourishment at all.
Lucy
We are nourished only by affliction and black tea.
Widow
Everything I eat rests on my stomach like lead.
Lucy
We eat hardly anything, and what we eat suffocates us.
Countess
Answer me, then Madame, agree.
Widow
No, I won't be alive in four days.
Countess
Live, and don't cry.