Ast. Now I can get at the ace.
Var. [to Praskóvya]. I must get your supper. [She gets a plate of meat from a cupboard.]
Fomá. And on All Souls' Day she brought home holy water in a bottle and sprinkled the rooms of all the lodgers. The schoolmaster was very angry. You spotted the cover of his Greek Lexicon. He says it is a pagan custom, come down to us from the ancient Scythians.
Pras. I do not like to hear jokes about sacred things. One may provoke Heaven to anger.
Ast. Now I get all this row off.
Fomá. You are always afraid of offending Heaven.
Pras. Of course I am. Think what I have at stake. For you it is only a little thing. You have a life of your own on earth; I have none. I have been as good as dead for twenty years, and the only thing that I desire is to get safely to heaven to join my son who is there.
Fomá. We all wish to get to heaven.
Pras. Not so much as I do. If I were in hell it is not the brimstone that would matter; it would be to know that I should not see my son. [Fomá nods].
Ast. I believe it is coming out.