LUKA. Hope you'll enjoy your tea!
VASSILISA [_turning_] Shut up! You rotten toadstool!
[_Leaves with her husband._]
LUKA. I'm off to-night.
BUBNOFF. That's right. Don't outstay your welcome!
LUKA. True enough.
BUBNOFF. I know. Perhaps I've escaped the gallows by getting away in
time . . .
LUKA. Well?
BUBNOFF. That's true. It was this way. My wife took up with my boss.
He was great at his trade--could dye a dog's skin so that it looked
like a raccoon's--could change cat's skin into kangaroo--muskrats, all
sorts of things. Well--my wife took up with him--and they were so mad
about each other that I got afraid they might poison me or something
like that--so I commenced beating up my wife--and the boss beat me
. . . we fought savagely! Once he tore off half my whiskers--and broke
one of my ribs . . . well, then I, too, got enraged. . . . I cracked
my wife over the head with an iron yard-measure--well--and altogether
it was like an honest-to-God war! And then I saw that nothing really
could come of it . . . they were planning to get the best of me! So I
started planning--how to kill my wife--I thought of it a whole lot
. . . but I thought better of it just in time . . . and got away . . .
LUKA. That was best! Let them go on changing dogs into raccoons!
BUBNOFF. Only--the shop was in my wife's name . . . and so I did
myself out of it, you see? Although, to tell the truth, I would have
drunk it away . . . I'm a hard drinker, you know . . .
LUKA. A hard drinker--oh . . .
BUBNOFF. The worst you ever met! Once I start drinking, I drink
everything in sight, I'll spend every bit of money I have--everything
except my bones and my skin . . . what's more, I'm lazy . . . it's
terrible how I hate work!
[_Enter Satine and the Actor, quarreling._]
SATINE. Nonsense! You'll go nowhere--it's all a damned lie! Old man,
what did you stuff him with all those fairy-tales for?
THE ACTOR. You lie! Grandfather! Tell him that he lies!--I am going
away. I worked to-day--I swept the streets . . . and I didn't have a
drop of vodka. What do you think of that? Here they are--two fifteen
kopeck pieces--and I'm sober!
SATINE. Why--that's absurd! Give it to me--I'll either drink it up--or
lose it at cards . . .
THE ACTOR. Get out--this is for my journey . . .
LUKA [_to Satine_] And you--why are you trying to lead him astray?
SATINE. Tell me, soothsayer, beloved by the Gods, what's my future
going to be? I've gone to pieces, brother--but everything isn't lost
yet, grandfather . . . there are sharks in this world who got more
brains than I!
LUKA. You're cheerful, Constantine--and very agreeable!
BUBNOFF. Actor, come over here! [_The Actor crosses to window, sits
down on the sill before Bubnoff, and speaks in a low voice with him_]
SATINE. You know, brother, I used to be a clever youngster. It's nice
to think of it. I was a devil of a fellow . . . danced splendidly,
played on the stage, loved to amuse people . . . it was awfully
gay . . .
LUKA. How did you get to be what you are?
SATINE. You're inquisitive, old man! You want to know everything? What
for?
LUKA. I want to understand the ways of men--I look at you, and I don't
understand. You're a bold lad, Constantine, and you're no fool . . .
yet, all of a sudden . . .
SATINE. It's prison, grandfather--I spent four years and seven months
in prison . . . afterwards--where could I go?
LUKA. Aha! What were you there for?
SATINE. On account of a scoundrel--whom I killed in a fit of rage
. . . and despair . . . and in prison I learned to play cards . . .
LUKA. You killed--because of a woman?
SATINE. Because of my own sister. . . . But look here--leave me alone!
I don't care for these cross-examinations--and all this happened a
long time ago. It's already nine years since my sister's death. . . .
Brother, she was a wonderful girl . . .
LUKA. You take life easily! And only a while ago that locksmith was
here--and how he did yell!
SATINE. Kleshtch?