AKULÍNA. Why do you leave the table? We are going to drink tea.
TRAMP. I tender my gratitude for the hearty hospitality. [ Throws away the cheap cigar[3] he was smoking and comes to the table ].
MARTHA. And what sort do you belong to? Peasants, or some other?
TRAMP. Well, I'm not of the peasant class, nor of the aristocracy. I'm of the double-edged class.
MARTHA. What's that? [ hands him a cup of tea ].
TRAMP. Merci. Why this; that my father was a Polish Count, and besides him I had many others; and I also had two mothers. In general my biography presents many difficulties.
MARTHA. Have another cup? Well, did you get any learning?
TRAMP. My learning has also been very uncircumstantial. Not my mother, but my godmother apprenticed me to a blacksmith. That blacksmith was my first perdagogue; and his perdagogy consisted in this—that he did not beat his anvil as often as he beat my unfortunate head. Nevertheless, however much he hit me, he could not deprive me of talent. Then I went to a locksmith's, and there I was appreciated, and became foreman. I made acquaintance with educated people, and belonged to a political faction. I was able to master intellectual literature; and my life might have been elevated for I possessed immense talent.
AKULÍNA. Of course.
TRAMP. But here came an upset. The despotic yoke oppressing the life of the people! I got into prison; I mean, I suffered the incarceration of freedom.