Page:Andreyev - Savva and The Life of Man.djvu/26

4 Oh, God! (She starts to scrub the floor again)

(enters, faint from heat) How stifling! I don't know what to do with myself. My head seems full of pins and needles. (She sits down) Polya, say, Polya.

What is it?

Where 's father?

He 's sleeping.

Oh, I can't stand it. (She opens the window, then takes a turn round the room, moving aimlessly and glancing into the tavern) Tony's sleeping too—behind the counter. It would be nice to go in bathing, but it's too hot to walk to the river. Polya, why don't you speak? Say something.

What?

Scrubbing, scrubbing, all the time.

Yes.

And in a day from now the floors will be dirty again. I don't see what pleasure you get from working the way you do.

I have to.

I just took a peep at the street. It 's awful. Not a