[FOOTMEN bow.
Jacob (to THEODORE IVÁNITCH). Couldn't you tell Gregory to help a bit! I'm ready to drop....
[Exit up the stairs.
First Footman. That is a hard-working chap you've got there.
Theodore Ivánitch. Yes, a good fellow. But there now—he doesn't satisfy the mistress, she says his appearance is ungainly. And now they've gone and told tales about him for letting some peasants into the kitchen yesterday. It is a bad look-out: they may dismiss him. And he is a good fellow.
Second Footman. What peasants were they?
Theodore Ivánitch. Peasants that had come from our Koursk village to buy some land. It was night, and they were our fellow-countrymen, one of them the father of the butler's assistant. Well, so they were asked into the kitchen. It so happened that there was thought-reading going on. Something was hidden in the kitchen, and all the gentlefolk came down, and the mistress saw the peasants. There was such a row! "How is this," she says; "these people may be infected, and they are let into the kitchen!".... She is terribly afraid of this infection.
[Enter GREGORY.
Theodore Ivánitch. Gregory, you go and help Jacob. I'll stay here. He can't manage alone.
Gregory. He's awkward, that's why he can't manage.