Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/161

. How are they to find out? They are all drunk. They are more after the dowry. They are giving the girl two fur coats, six bodices, a French shawl, a big lot of linen, and, they say, two hundred roubles in money.

. What pleasure is there in such money? What a shame!

. Hush. The suitor is coming. (They grow silent and walk into the vestibule.)

. I am sweating. Oh, it is so hot. I want to cool off a little. (Stands blowing.) God knows how it is—something wrong—does not please me— Well, an old woman—

(coming out of the vestibule). I was looking for the suitor, and here you are. Well, my dear, thank the Lord, everything is done honourably. A suitor must not brag. I do not even know how to brag. You have come to do a good work, and God will grant you to thank me for it all your life. The bride, you know, is a rare one. You will not find such a girl in the whole country.

. That is so, if only we don't get fooled about the money.

. Don't mention the money! She has all her parents have left her. In our time one hundred and fifty roubles are not a small matter.

. We are satisfied, but we do not want to wrong our child,—we want to do it in the best possible manner.