live sables.

USTÍNYA NAÚMOVNA. But, my dear, it's impossible! I'd be tickled to death,
but I've given my word.

PODKHALYÚZIN. Just as you please, ma'am! But if you betroth her to the
other fellow, you'll bring such bad luck upon yourself, that you'll not get
clear afterwards!

USTÍNYA NAÚMOVNA. But just consider yourself, how'll I have the nerve to
show my face before Samsón Sílych? I gave it to him hot and heavy: that the
fellow is rich, and handsome, and so much in love that he is half dead; and
now what'll I say? You know yourself what a fellow Samsón Sílych is; you
see he'll pull my cap over my ears before you know it.

PODKHALYÚZIN. Pull your cap nothing, ma'am!

USTÍNYA NAÚMOVNA. And I've got the girl all worked up. Twice a day she
sends to me and asks: "What's the matter with my suitor?" and, "What's he
like?"

PODKHALYÚZIN. But don't you run away from your own good fortune, Ustinya
Naúmovna. Do you want two thousand rubles and a sable cloak for merely
arranging this wedding, ma'am? But let our understanding about the match be
private. I tell you, ma'am, that this suitor's such a sort as you've never
seen; there's only one thing, ma'am: he's not of aristocratic origin.

USTÍNYA NAÚMOVNA. But is she an aristocrat? Pity if she is, my jewel!
That's the way things go these days: every peasant girl is trying to
worm her way into the nobility.--Now, although this here Olimpiáda