MARY IVÁNOVNA. What?
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. No, you speak first.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. Well, I wanted to have a talk with you about Styópa. After all, something must be decided. He, poor fellow, feels depressed, and does not know what awaits him. He came to me, but how can I decide?
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Why decide? He can decide for himself.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. But, you know, he wants to enter the Horse-Guards as a volunteer, and in order to do that he must get you to countersign his papers, and he must also be in a position to keep himself; and you don't give him anything. [Gets excited].
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Mary, for heaven's sake don't get excited, but listen to me. I don't give or withhold anything. To enter military service of one's own free will, I consider either a stupid, insensate action, suitable for a savage if the man does not understand the evil of his action, or despicable if he does it from an interested motive.…
MARY IVÁNOVNA. But nowadays everything seems savage and stupid to you. After all, he must live; you lived!
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH [getting irritable] I lived when I did not understand; and when nobody gave me good advice. However, it does not depend on me but on him.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. How not on you? It's you who don't give him an allowance.
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. I can't give what is not mine!