KONDRATY
They'll start drinkshops again all right. Can't get along without them, you know. (A prolonged pause) Ye-es. What are you thinking about, Savva Yegorovich?
SAVVA
Nothing. (Draws a light breath, cheerfully) Well, Kondraty, shall we begin?
KONDRATY (swaying his head to and fro)
It's a mighty hard problem you have put up to me. It's a poser.
SAVVA
Never mind, don't get shaky now. You are a sensible man; you know it can't be helped; there is nothing else to do. Would I be doing it myself, if it were not necessary? You can see that, can't you?
KONDRATY (heaving a sigh)
Ye-es, hm! Why, Mr. Tropinin—why, my dear fellow—don't I know, don't I understand it all? It's a rotten, cursed life! Ah, Mr. Savva, Mr. Savva—look here. If I were to tell anyone that I am a good man, they'd laugh and say: "What are you lying for, you drunkard?" Kondraty a good man! It sounds like a joke even to myself. And yet I swear to you, by God, I am a good man! I don't know how it happened the way it did, why I am what I am now. I lived and lived, and suddenly! How it came about, what the reason of it is, I don't know.