BUBNOFF. The worst you ever met! Once I start drinking, I drink everything in sight, I’ll spend every bit of money I have—everything except my bones and my skin . . . what’s more, I’m lazy . . . it’s terrible how I hate work!
[Enter Satine and the Actor, quarreling.]
SATINE. Nonsense! You’ll go nowhere—it’s all a damned lie! Old man, what did you stuff him with all those fairy-tales for?
THE ACTOR. You lie! Grandfather! Tell him that he lies!—I am going away. I worked to-day—I swept the streets . . . and I didn’t have a drop of vodka. What do you think of that? Here they are—two fifteen kopeck pieces—and I’m sober!
SATINE. Why—that’s absurd! Give it to me—I’ll either drink it up—or lose it at cards . . .
THE ACTOR. Get out—this is for my journey . . .
LUKA [to Satine] And you—why are you trying to lead him astray?
SATINE. Tell me, soothsayer, beloved by the Gods, what’s my future going to be? I’ve gone to pieces, brother—but everything isn’t lost yet, grandfather . . . there are sharks in this world who got more brains than I!
LUKA. You’re cheerful, Constantine—and very agreeable!
BUBNOFF. Actor, come over here! [The Actor crosses to window, sits down on the sill before Bubnoff, and speaks in a low voice with him]