Page:Five Russian plays and one Ukrainian.pdf/157

Rh machine.) I can’t bear untidiness! You’d have done well to-day not to invite ladies to the jubilee dinner.


 * What nonsense!


 * I know you are letting them in to-day so as to be elegant. But, you see, they’ll spoil everything for you. From them comes all untidiness.


 * On the contrary, women’s society elevates.


 * Yes! Now, you’d call your wife an educated woman; and last Monday she said a thing that made me gasp for a couple of days. Suddenly she asked me before strangers, “Is it true that at our bank my husband bought those shares in the Drage-Prage bank which dropped on the Exchange? Oh, my husband is so uneasy!” And that before strangers! And why you’re so open with them, I can’t understand. Do you want them to lead you into the courts?


 * All right, enough, enough. This is all too gloomy for a jubilee. But you do well to remind me. (Looks at his watch.) My wife should be here immediately. In the ordinary way I should have driven to the station to meet the poor