Yaìch. Just come here a minute, confound you! Just come here to me!
Fèkla (backing towards the door). Not I! I know you too well! You’ve got a heavy hand; one never knows when you may strike!
Yaìch. Ah, my dove! I’ll pay you out for this! When I take you to the police-station you’ll get a lesson how to deceive honest people. I’ll let you know! And tell the girl from me that she’s a beast! Do you hear? Be sure you tell her. (Exit.)
Fèkla. Well, I never did! He’s in a fine fury! Just because he’s fat, he thinks there’s no one like him in the world. And supposing I say that you’re a beast yourself, what then?
Anoùch. I am bound to say, my good woman, that I did not expect you to have deceived me so. If I had known that the young lady is so uneducated, I ... I simply would never have set foot inside the place. That’s the truth! (Exit.)
Fèkla. Is the man drunk or daft? These fine folk are over hard to please! All that foolish learning has just turned his head! (Kochkaryòv points to Fèkla with his finger, and bursts into a roar of laughter.)
Fèkla. (angrily). What’s all that guffaw about? (Kochkaryòv goes on laughing.) Well, you needn’t go into a fit!
Koch. Matchmaker! matchmaker! She knows her business! she knows how to arrange marriages! (Continues to laugh.)
Fèkla. You’re a wonderful one to laugh; I should think your mother went daft the hour that you were born. (Exit angrily.)
Koch. (continues to laugh). Oh! I can’t!... I can’t really!... It’s too much!... I shall die of laughing!... (Continues to laugh. Zhevàkin looks at him and begins to laugh too.)