Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/117

. She asked me whether they wanted to marry you to Akulína.

(walks up to Nikita, back of her spinning-wheel). Who is to marry Akulína?

. Nikíta.

. I declare! Who says so?

. Evidently people say so. (Looks at her and laughs.) Akulína, will you marry me?

. You? Sometime ago I might have married you perhaps, but now I won't.

. Why not now?

. Because you will not love me.

. Why not?

. Because you are told not to. (Laughs.)

. Who tells me not to?

. My stepmother. She is scolding all the time, and all the time watching you.

(laughing). I declare! But you are shrewd.

. Who, I? Why shrewd? Am I blind? She gave father a terrible tongue-lashing to-day, that big-snouted witch. (Exit to the storeroom.)

. Nikíta! Look there. (Looks through the window.) She is coming. Truly, she is. I am going away. (Exit.)

(enter). What are you doing with me?

. What am I doing? Nothing.

. You want to abandon me.

(getting up, angrily). What good is there in your coming?

. Ah, Nikíta!

. Really, you are all queer— What did you come for?