Jacob. It's easy for you to talk. Here am I serving tea for the third time, and now there's the lunch to get ready. One does nothing but rush about the livelong day. Is there any one in the house who has more to do than me? Yet they are never satisfied with me.
Gregory. Dear me! Who could wish for any one more satisfactory? You're such a fine fellow!
Tánya. Nobody is good enough for you! You alone....
Gregory (to TÁNYA). No one asked your opinion!
[Exit.
Jacob. Ah, well, I don't mind. Tatyána Márkovna, did the mistress say anything about yesterday?
Tánya. About the lamp, you mean?
Jacob. And how it managed to drop out of my hands, the Lord only knows! Just as I began rubbing it, and was going to take hold of it in another place, out it slips and goes all to pieces. It's just my luck! It's easy for that Gregory Miháylitch to talk—a single man like him! But when one has a family, one has to consider things: they have to be fed. I don't mind work.... So she didn't say anything? The Lord be thanked!... Oh, Theodore Ivánitch, have you one spoon or two?
Theodore Ivánitch. One. Only one!
[Reads newspaper.