VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. Do you see what's going on in this house! Do you
see? Do you understand it, or don't you? Just now when I began to talk
about Grísha, you heard how she began to roar? You heard how she began to
hiss?

POTÁPYCH. What's that to me? I, by the mistress's kindness, in her
employ....I shall carry out all her orders.... What business is it of mine?
I don't want to know anything that isn't my business.

VASILÍSA PEREGRÍNOVNA. But did you see how Nádya and Líza--the
hussies!--looked at me? Did you see how the snakes looked? Ha! I must look
after them, I must! [POTÁPYCH, _with a wave of his hand, goes out_] Bah!
you! you old blockhead! What people! What people! There's no one to whom I
can talk, and relieve my heart. [_She goes out_.



III

_Part of the garden; to the rear, a pond, on the shore of which is a boat.
Starry night. A choral song is heard in the far distance. For a while the
stage is empty._



SCENE I

_Enter_ NÁDYA _and_ LÍZA