What could I do but buy new ones?  If others would do the same I could let the youngster run in cheap boots.  How can one retrench here?  Twenty years, already, I have struggled and see no way out.  To-day or to-morrow my head will burst, or I may beat it to pieces against a stone wall.  Isn’t it an effort at retrenchment when I say that I cannot afford it? but with whom am I to speak here?  Does anyone understand me?  Yes, reduce your expenses!
                    [Goes toward the ante-room to the right and meets Nato
                         with four sheets of music in her hand.

[43] Abace—­20 kopecks.

Scene VII

Nato, Ossep, Chacho.

OSSEP.  Yes, yes, reduce your expenses!

CHACHO.  Little girl, how quickly you have come back!

NATO.  I did not go far, aunt.

CHACHO.  What have you in your hand, sweetheart?

NATO.  I have bought some new music.

OSSEP [stepping up to them].  Yes, yes, retrench! [Taking a sheet of music out of her hand.] What did you pay for this?

NATO.  Four abaces.

OSSEP.  And for this [taking another]?

NATO [looking at it].  Six abaces.

OSSEP [taking a third].  And for this?

NATO [fretfully].  One ruble and a half.

OSSEP [taking the last].  And certainly as much for this?

NATO.  No, papa; I paid two rubles and a half for that.

OSSEP [angrily].  And one is to economize!  Am I to blame for this?  What have you bought four pieces for?  Was not one or two enough?

NATO [frightened].  I need them.

OSSEP [still more angrily].  Tell me one thing—­is this to be endured?  If she could play properly at least, but she only drums two or three pieces and says she can play.  I cannot play myself, but I have heard persons who played well.  They could use these things, but not we.  I wish the devil had the man who introduced this! [Throws the music on the floor.] I’ll cut off my hand if she can play properly.

CHACHO.  There, there, stop, now!

OSSEP.  Whatever she tries to do is only half done:  music, languages—­she has only half learned.  Tell me, what can she do?  Is she able to sew anything? or to cut out a dress for herself?  Yes, that one seems like a European girl!  Ha! ha!  Five times I have been in Leipsic, and the daughter of the merest pauper there can do more than she can.  What have I not seen in the way of needlework!  I gaped with admiration.  And she cannot even speak Armenian properly, and that is her mother tongue!  Can she write a page without mistakes?  Can she pronounce ten French words fluently?  Yes, tell me, what can she do?  What does she understand?  She will make a fine housekeeper for you!  The man who takes her for his wife is to be pitied.  She be able to share