ll we couldn't find it.
They wanted to bring me to trial, but suddenly I remembered: it must be,
now, I forgot that thing and left it in the wine-shop. I went there with
the bailiff, and there it was.

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA. I declare! That may happen to a sober man as well as
to one who drinks. What a pity!

BOLSHOV. How is it they didn't send you off to Kamchatka?

RISPOLOZHENSKY. To Kamchatka! But why, permit me to ask you, why should
they send me off to Kamchatka?

BOLSHOV. Why? Because you're drunk and disorderly. Do they have to show you
any indulgence? Why, you'll just kill yourself drinking.

RISPOLOZHENSKY. On the contrary, they spared me. You see, my dear Agrafena
Kondratyevna, they wanted to try me for that very thing--I went immediately
to our general, and flopped at his feet! "Your Excellency!" I said. "Don't
ruin me! I've a wife," I said, "and little children!" "Well," he said,
"deuce take you; they won't strike a man when he's down: tender your
resignation, so I shan't see you here." So he spared me. What now! God
bless him! He doesn't forget me even now; sometimes I run in to see him
on a holiday: "Well," says he, "how are you, Sysoy Psoich?" "I came,
your Excellency, to wish you a happy holiday." So, I went to the Troitsa
monastery not long ago, and brought him a consecrated wafer. I'll just take
a thimbleful, Agrafena Kondratyevna. [_Drinks._

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA. With my compliments, my dear sir. Ustinya Naumovna,
let's you and me go out; the samovar is ready, I suppose; I'll show you
that we have something new for the wedding outfit.

USTINYA NAUMOVNA. I suppose, my jewel, you have heaps of stuff ready.

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA. Why certainly. The new materials have come, and it
seems as if we didn't have to pay money for them.

USTINYA NAUMOVNA. What's the use of talking, my pearl! You have your own
shop, and it's as if they grew in your garden. [_They go out._

SCENE X

BOLSHOV and RISPOLOZHENSKY

BOLSHOV. Well, Sysoy Psoich, I suppose you've wasted a good deal of ink in
your time on this pettifoggery?

RISPOLOZHENSKY. He, he! Samson Silych, cheap goods! But I came to inquire
how your business is getting on.

BOLSHOV. You did! Much you need to know! Bah, you low-down people! You
bloodsuckers! Just let you scent out something or other, and immediately
you sneak round with your diabolical suggestions.

RISPOLOZHENSKY. What kind of a suggestion could come from me, Samson
Silych