e!
[_Exit, left_.

SCENE V

BARSSEGH [_alone_]. And you shall see what I will do! Only wait, my dear
Ossep! I am getting a day of joy ready for you and you will shed tears
as thick as my thumb. I have been looking for the chance a long time,
and now fate has delivered you into my hands. You braggart, you shall
see how you will lie at my feet. I am the son of the cobbler Matus.
There are certain simpletons who shake their heads over those who had
nothing and suddenly amount to something. But I tell you that this world
is nothing more than a great honey-cask. He who carries away the best
part for himself, without letting the others come near it, he is the
man to whom praise and honor are due. But a man who stands aside, like
Ossep, and waits till his turn comes is an ass.

_Enter Dartscho_.

BARSSEGH. Ah, Dartscho! How quickly you have come!

DARTSCHO. I met Micho just now, and he told me that you had sent for me.

BARSSEGH. I have something important to speak with you about. [_He sits
down_.] Where were you just now?

DARTSCHO. At George's, the coal man. He owed us some money, and I have
been to see him seven times this week on that account.

BARSSEGH. He is very unpunctual. But how does it stand? Has he paid?

DARTSCHO. Of course! What do you take me for? I stayed in the store as
if nailed there, and when a new customer came in I repeated my demand.
There was nothing left for him to do but to pay me, for shame's sake.

BARSSEGH. That pleases me in you, my son. Go on like that and you will
get on in the world. Look at me! There was a time when they beat me over
the head and called me by my given name. Then they called me Barssegh,
and finally "Mr." Barssegh. When I was as old as you are I was nothing,
and now I am a man who stands for something. If my father, Matus, were
still alive he would be proud of me. I tell you all this so that you
will spare no pains to make yourself a master and make people forget
that you are the son of a driver. A son can raise up the name of his
father; he can also drag it down into the dust.

DARTSCHO. You see best of all what trouble I take, Mr. Barssegh. When I
open the store in the morning, I never wait until Micho comes, but I
take the broom in my hand and sweep out the store. And how I behave with
the customers, you yourself see.

BARSSEGH. Yes, I see it; I see it, my son, and it is on that account I
am so good to you. Only wait till next year a