The Storm

KUDRIASH. Yes, but she at least does it all under pretence of morality; he's like a wild beast broken loose!

SHAPKIN.

There's no one to bring him to his senses, so he rages about as he likes!

KUDRIASH.

There are too few lads of my stamp or we'd have broken him of it.

SHAPKIN.

Why, what would you have done?

KUDRIASH.

We'd have given him a good scare.

SHAPKIN.

How'd you do that?

KUDRIASH. Why, four or five of us would have had a few words with him, face to face, in some back street, and he'd soon have been as soft as silk. And he'd never have let on to a soul about the lesson we'd given him; he'd just have walked off and taken care to look behind him.

SHAPKIN.

I see he'd some reason for wanting to get you sent for a soldier.

KUDRIASH. He wanted to, right enough, but he didn't do it. No, he won't get rid of me; he's an inkling that I'd make him pay too dear for it. You're afraid of him, but I know how to talk to him.

SHAPKIN.

Oh, I daresay!

KUDRIASH.

What do you mean by that? I am reckoned a tough one to deal with. Why do

you suppose he keeps me on? Because he can't do without me, to be sure.

Well, then, I've no need to be afraid of him; let him be afraid of me.

SHAPKIN.

Why, doesn't he swear at you?

KUDRIASH.

Swear at me! Of course; he can't breathe without that. But I don't give

way to him: if he says one word, I say ten; he curses and goes off. No,

I'm not going to lick the dust for him.

KULIGIN.

What, follow his example! You'd do better to bear it in patience.

KUDRIASH. Come, I say, if you're so wise, teach him good manners first and then we'll learn! It's a pity his daughters are all children, there's not one grown-up girl among them.

SHAPKIN.

What if there were?

KUDRIASH. I should treat him as he deserves if there were. I'm a devil of a fellow among the girls!

[Dikoy and Boris advance. Kuligin takes off his hat.

SHAPKIN (to Kudriash).

Let us move off; he'll pick a quarrel with us, very likely.

[They move off a little.

SCENE II.

The Same, DIKOY and BORIS.

DIKOY. Did you come here to loaf about in idleness? eh? Lazy good for nothing fellow, confound you!

BORIS.

It's a holiday; what could I be doing at home?

DIKOY. You'd find work to do if you wanted to. I've said it once, and I've said it twice, "don't dare to let me come across you"; you're incorrigible! Isn't there room enough for you? Go where one will, there you are! Damn you! Why do you stand there like a post? Do you hear what's said to you?

BORIS.

I'm listening,—what more am I to do?

DIKOY (looking at Boris). Get away with you! I won't talk to a Jesuit like you. (Going) To come forcing himself on me here!

[Spits and exit.

SCENE III

KULIGIN, BORIS, KUDRIASH, and SHAPKIN.

KULIGIN. What have you to do with him, sir? We can't make it out. What can induce you to live with him and put up with his abuse?

BORIS.

A poor inducement, Kuligin! I'm not free.

KULIGIN. But how are you not free, allow me to ask you. If you can tell us, sir, do.

BORIS.

Why not? You knew our grandmother, Anfisa Mihalovna?

KULIGIN.

To be sure I did!

KUDRIASH.

I should think we did!

BORIS. She quarrelled with my father you know because he married into a noble family. It was owing to that that my father and mother lived in Moscow. My mother used to tell me that she could hardly endure life for three days together with my father's relations, it all seemed so rough and coarse to her.

KULIGIN. Well it might! you have to be used to it from the first, sir, to be able to bear it.

BORIS. Our parents brought us up well in Moscow, they spared no expense. They sent me to the Commercial Academy, and my sister to a boarding school, but they both died suddenly of cholera. We were left orphans, my sister and I. Then we heard that our grandmother was dead here, and had left a will that our uncle was to pay us a fair share of her fortune, when we came of age, only upon one condition.

KULIGIN.

And what was that, sir?

BORIS.

If we showed a proper respect for his authority.

KULIGIN.

Then there's no doubt, sir, you'll never see your fortune.

BORIS. No, but that's not all, Kuligin! First he finds fault with us to his heart's content, and ends none the less with giving us nothing, or some tiny dole. And then he'll go making out that it's a great favour, and that he ought not to have done even that.

KUDRIASH. That's just the way the merchants go on among us. Besides, if you were ever so respectful to him, who's to hinder him from saying you're disrespectful?

BORIS. To be sure. And indeed he sometimes will say: I've children of my own, why should I give money away to outsiders? Am I to wrong my own like that?

KULIGIN.

It's plain, sir, you're not in luck's way.

BORIS. If it were only me, I wouldn't care! I'd throw it all up and go away. But I'm sorry for my sister. He did write for her to come too, but mother's relations wouldn't let her, they wrote she wasn't well. It frightens me to think what the life here would be for her.

KUDRIASH.