Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/249

. Don't beat around the bush, but talk business!

. Business? Well, the business is that Semén wants to marry me.

. Indeed. I thought I noticed something.

. Why should I conceal it? I am an orphan, and you know yourself how it is here in the city: everybody annoys me with his attentions. Take, for example, Grigóri Mikháylych. He gives me no peace. They all think that I have no soul, that I am intended for a toy for them—

. You are clever,—I like that! Well, what of it?

. Semén wrote to his father, and when his father saw me to-day, he said that his son was spoilt—Fédor Iványch! (Bows.) Be in place of my father, and speak with the old man, with Semén's father. I will take them to the kitchen, if you will come there and talk with the old man.

(smiling). Oh, you mean to have me for a match-maker? I do not object.

. Dear Fédor Iványch, be in place of my father, and I will all my life pray to God for you.

. All right, all right, I will be there. I will do as I promise. (Takes the newspaper.)

. Be my second father!

. All right, all right!

. Then I will hope. (Exit.)

. She is a good, kindly girl. When you think of it, how many of them get ruined! Let them make one false step, and down they go. Then you can't pick them out from the mire. Take, for example,