isten to me, Mr. Honourable Man. When you are escorting a lady it
is very bad manners to talk to her the whole way about nothing but your
own honesty. Such behaviour may be perfectly honest, but it is also
tedious, to say the least. Never tell a woman how good you are; let her
find it out herself. My Nicholas used only to sing and tell stories when
he was young as you are, and yet every woman knew at once what kind of a
man he was.

LVOFF. Don't talk to me of your Nicholas; I know all about him!

ANNA. You are a very worthy man, but you don't know anything at
all. Come into the garden. He never said: "I am an honest man; these
surroundings are too narrow for me." He never spoke of wolves' dens,
called people bears or vultures. He left the animal kingdom alone, and
the most I have ever heard him say when he was excited was: "Oh, how
unjust I have been to-day!" or "Annie, I am sorry for that man." That's
what he would say, but you--

ANNA and LVOFF go out. Enter AVDOTIA and FIRST GUEST through the door on
the left.

FIRST GUEST. There isn't any in the dining-room, so it must be
somewhere in the pantry. We must find George. Come this way, through the
sitting-room.

AVDOTIA. Oh, how I should like to get my claws into her!

They go out through the door on the right. MARTHA and BORKIN run in
laughing from the garden. SHABELSK I comes mincing behind them, laughing
and rubbing his hands.

MARTHA. Oh, I am so bored! [Laughs loudly] This is deadly! Every one
looks as if he had swallowed a poker. I am frozen to the marrow by this
icy dullness. [She skips about] Let us do something!

BORKIN catches her by the waist and kisses her cheek.

SHABELSKI. [Laughing and snapping his fingers] Well, I'll be hanged!
[Cackling] Really, you know!

MARTHA. Let go! Let go, you wretch! What will the Count think? Stop, I
say!

BORKIN. Angel! Jewel! Lend me twenty-three hundred roubles.

MARTHA. Most certainly not! Do what you please, but I'll thank you to
leave my money alone. No, no, no! Oh, let go, will you?

SHABELSKI. [Mincing around them] The little birdie has its charms!
[Seriously] Come, that will do!

BORKIN. Let us come to the point, and consider my proposition frankly
as a business arrangement. Answer me honestly, without tricks and
equivocations, do you agree to do it or not? Listen to me; [Pointing
to Shabelski] he needs money to the amount of at least three thousand a
year; you need a husband. Do you want to be a Coun