LUKA. How are you, honest folks?
PEPEL [twisting his mustache] Aha—Natasha!
BUBNOFF [to Luka] I was honest—up to spring before last.
NATASHA. Here’s a new lodger . . .
LUKA. Oh, it’s all the same to me. Crooks—I don’t mind them, either. For my part there’s no bad flea—they’re all black—and they all jump— . . . Well, dearie, show me where I can stow myself.
NATASHA [pointing to kitchen door] Go in there, grand-dad.
LUKA. Thanks, girlie! One place is like another—as long as an old fellow keeps warm, he keeps happy . . .
PEPEL. What an amusing old codger you brought in, Natasha!
NATASHA. A hanged sight more interesting than you! . . . Andrei, your wife’s in the kitchen with us—come and fetch her after a while . . .
KLESHTCH. All right—I will . . .