rd! Lord!

FRIAR _(pained)_

What's the matter? Don't cry, for pity's sake. What are you crying
for? There is no cause for crying.

LIPA

No cause do you say, Vassya? I am crying for joy. Why aren't you glad,
Vassya? Don't you believe in the miracle?

FRIAR

Yes, I do. But I can't bear to see all this. They all behave like
drunks, and shout and make a noise. You can't understand what they are
talking about. They crushed that woman. _(With pain and disgust)_ They
squeezed the life out of her. Oh, Lord, I simply can't! And the whole
business. Father Kirill keeps grunting "Oui, oui, oui." _(Laughs
sadly)_ Why is he grunting?

LIPA _(sternly)_

You learned that from Savva.

FRIAR

No, I didn't. Tell me, why is he grunting? _(Laughs sadly)_ Why?

_[Yegor Tropinin enters dressed in holiday attire, his beard and hair
combed. He looks extremely solemn and stern._

YEGOR

Why are you here, eh? And in that kind of dress? You're a fine sight.

LIPA

I had no time to get dressed.

YEGOR

But you found time to get here. What you have no business to do you
have time for, but what you should do you have no time for. Go home
and get dressed. It isn't proper. Who has ever seen such a thing?

LIPA

Oh, papa!

YEGOR

There is nothing to "oh" about. It's all right, papa is papa, but you
see I am properly dressed. I dressed and then went out. That's the
right way to do. Yes. It's a pleasure to look at myself sideways. I
dressed as was proper, yes. On a day like this you ought to give a
hand at the counter. Tony has disappeared, and Polya can't do all the
work herself. You needn't be making such a face now.

MERCHANT _(passing by)_

Congratulate you on the miracle, Mr. Tropinin!

YEGOR

Thank you, brother, the same to you. Wait, I'll go with you. You are a
goose, Olympiada. You have always been a goose, and you have remained
a goose to this day.

MERCHANT

You'll have a fine trade now.

YEGOR

If it please the Lord! Why are you so late? Have you been sleeping?
You keep sleeping, all of you, all the time. _(They go out)_

FRIAR

I scattered all the fireflies I caught on the road when I ran last
night. And now the crowd has trampled them down. I wish I had left
them in the woods. Listen to the way they are shouting. I wonder
what's the matter. They must have squeezed somebody to death again.

LIPA _(closing her eyes)_

When you talk, Vassya, your words seem to pass by me. I hear and I
don't he