VASSILISA. Taken a fancy to some one else?
PEPEL. None of your business! Suppose I have—I wouldn’t ask you to be my match-maker!
VASSILISA [significantly] That’s too bad . . . perhaps I might arrange a match . . .
PEPEL [suspiciously] Who with?
VASSILISA. You know—why do you pretend? Vassily—let me be frank. [With lower voice] I won’t deny it—you’ve offended me . . . it was like a bolt from the blue . . . you said you loved me—and then all of a sudden . . .
PEPEL. It wasn’t sudden at all. It’s been a long time since I . . . woman, you’ve no soul! A woman must have a soul . . . we men are beasts—we must be taught—and you, what have you taught me—?
VASSILISA. Never mind the past! I know—no man owns his own heart—you don’t love me any longer . . . well and good, it can’t be helped!
PEPEL. So that’s over. We part peaceably, without a row—as it should be!
VASSILISA. Just a moment! All the same, when I lived with you, I hoped you’d help me out of this swamp—I thought you’d free me from my husband and my uncle—from all this life—and perhaps, Vassya, it wasn’t you whom I loved—but my hope—do you understand? I waited for you to drag me out of this mire . . .
PEPEL. You aren’t a nail—and I’m not a pair of pincers! I thought you had brains—you are so clever—so crafty . . .