nd pack
him off where he came from, and you will be mistress in your own
house--you can love whom you like and no one can say anything to
you. And then you can love your highly educated gentleman. You'll
have a jolly time!" Stinging Beetle snapped her fingers and gave a
whistle.

"It's sinful," said Auntie.

"Oh, sinful," laughed Stinging Beetle. "She is educated, she
understands. To cut some one's throat or bewitch an old man--
that's a sin, that's true; but to love some charming young friend
is not a sin at all. And what is there in it, really? There's no
sin in it at all! The old pilgrim women have invented all that to
make fools of simple folk. I, too, say everywhere it's a sin; I
don't know myself why it's a sin." Stinging Beetle emptied her glass
and cleared her throat. "Have your fling, bonny lass," this time
evidently addressing herself. "For thirty years, wenches, I have
thought of nothing but sins and been afraid, but now I see I have
wasted my time, I've let it slip by like a ninny! Ah, I have been
a fool, a fool!" She sighed. "A woman's time is short and every day
is precious. You are handsome, Annushka, and very rich; but as soon
as thirty-five or forty strikes for you your time is up. Don't
listen to any one, my girl; live, have your fling till you are
forty, and then you will have time to pray forgiveness--there
will be plenty of time to bow down and to sew your shroud. A candle
to God and a poker to the devil! You can do both at once! Well, how
is it to be? Will you make some little man happy?"

"I will," laughed Anna Akimovna. "I don't care now; I would marry
a working man."

"Well, that would do all right! Oh, what a fine fellow you would
choose then!" Stinging Beetle screwed up her eyes and shook her
head. "O--o--oh!"

"I tell her myself," said Auntie, "it's no good waiting for a
gentleman, so she had better marry, not a gentleman, but some one
humbler; anyway we should have a man in the house to look after
things. And there are lots of good men. She might have some one out
of the factory. They are all sober, steady men. . . ."

"I should think so," Stinging Beetle agreed. "They are capital
fellows. If you like, Aunt, I will make a match for her with Vassily
Lebedinsky?"

"Oh, Vasya's legs are so long," said Auntie seriously. "He is so
lanky. He has no looks."

There was laughter in the crowd by the door.

"Well, Pimenov? Would you like to marry Pimenov?" Stinging Beetle
asked Anna Akim