LIZA.  But why should we try to be fine ladies?  Much good it does!

NADYA.  Much good, you say?  Well, you see the ladies promised to marry me off, so I am trying to educate myself, so that no one’ll be ashamed to take me.  You know what sort of wives our officials have; well, what a lot they are!  And I understand life and society ten times better than they do.  Now I have just one hope:  to marry a good man, so I may be the mistress of my own household.  You just watch then how I’ll manage the house; it will be no worse at my house than at any fine lady’s.

LIZA.  God grant your wish!  But do you notice how the young master is running after you?

NADYA.  Much good it’ll do him!  Of course, he’s a pretty fellow, you might even say, a beauty; only he has nothing to expect from me; because I am decidedly not of that sort; and on the other hand, I’m trying now in every way that there may be no scandal of any sort about me.  I have but one thing in mind:  to get married.

LIZA.  Even married life is sometimes no joy!  You may get such a husband that ...  God help you!

NADYA.  What a joy it would be to me to marry a really fine man!  I, thank God, am able to distinguish between people:  who is good, who bad.  That’s easy to see at once from their manners and conversation.  But the mistress is so unreasonable in holding us in so strictly, and in keeping everlasting watch over us!  Indeed, it’s insulting to me!  I’m a girl that knows how to take care of herself without any watching.

LIZA.  It looks as if the master were coming.

NADYA.  Then let’s go. [They rise and go out.

LEONID comes in with a gun.

SCENE II

LEONID and then POTAPYCH

LEONID.  Wait a bit!  Hey, you, where are you going?  Why are they always running away from me?  You can’t catch them anyhow! [He stands musing.  Silence.

A GIRL sings behind the rail fence:

    “No man may hope to flee the sting
       Of cruel affliction’s pain;
     New love within the heart may sing—­
       Regret still in its train.”

LEONID. [Running up to the fence] What a pretty girl you are!

GIRL.  Pretty, but not yours!

LEONID.  Come here!

GIRL.  Where?

LEONID.  To me in the garden.

GIRL.  Why go to you?

LEONID.  I’ll go to town and buy you earrings.

GIRL.  You’re only a kid!

She laughs loudly and goes out. LEONID stands with bowed head musing. POTAPYCH enters in hunting-dress, with a gun.

POTAPYCH.  One can’t keep up with you, sir; you have young legs.

LEONID. [All the while lost in thought] All this, Potapych, will be mine.

POTAPYCH.  All yours, sir, and we shall all be yours....  Just as we served the old master, so we must serve you....  Because you’re of the same blood....  That’s the right way.  Of course, may God prolong your dear mamma’s days....