do you want to
dishonor the girl?

BOLSHOV. Yes, much I have to listen to your high-falutin' talk. I've
decided to marry my daughter to a clerk, and I'll have my way, and don't
you dare argue; I don't give a hang for anybody. Come now, we'll go take
a snack; but just let them kid each other, and maybe they'll make it up
somehow or other.

RISPOLOZHENSKY. Let's go, Samson Silych, and you and I, for company, will
just take a thimbleful. Yes, yes, Agrafena Kondratyevna, that's the first
duty, that children should obey their parents. We didn't start that custom,
and we shan't see the last of it.

_They all rise and go out except_ LIPOCHKA, PODKHALYUZIN, _and_ AGRAFENA
KONDRATYEVNA.

LIPOCHKA. Mamma, what does this mean? Does he want to make a cook of me?
[_She weeps_.

PODKHALYUZIN. Mamma, ma'am! Such a son-in-law as will respect you and,
naturally, make your old age happy, aside from me you won't find, ma'am.

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA. How are you going to do that, my dear?

PODKHALYUZIN. Mamma, ma'am! God has made me aspire so high, ma'am for this
reason, ma'am, because the other fellow, mamma, will turn you down flat,
ma'am; but I, till I land in my coffin [_weeps_], must have feeling, ma'am!

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA. Ah, saints alive! But how can this be?

BOLSHOV. [_Through the door_] Wife, come here!

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA. Coming, my dear, coming!

PODKHALYUZIN. Mamma, you remember the word I said just now!

AGRAFENA KONDRATYEVNA _goes out_.

SCENE V

LIPOCHKA _and_ PODKHALYUZIN

_Silence_

PODKHALYUZIN. Olimpiada Samsonovna, ma'am! Olimpiada Samsonovna! I suppose
you abominate me? Say only one word, ma'am! Just let me kiss your little
hand!

LIPOCHKA. You blockhead, you ignorant lout!

PODKHALYUZIN. But why, Olimpiada Samsonovna, do you want to insult me,
ma'am?

LIPOCHKA. I'll tell you once, now and forever, that I won't marry you, and
I won't!

PODKHALYUZIN. That's just as you please, ma'am! Love can't be forced. Only
here's what I want to announce to you, ma'am----

LIPOCHKA. I won't listen to you; go away from me! As if you were an
educated gentleman! You see that I wouldn't marry you for anything in the
world--you ought to break off yourself!

PODKHALYUZIN. Now, Olimpiada Samsonovna, you were pleased to say "break
off." Only, if I should break off, what would happen then, ma'am?

LIPOCHKA. Why, the thing that would happen would be that I'd marry an
aristocrat.

PODKHALYUZIN. A