Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/319

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THE FRUITS OF ENLIGHTENMENT
297

gling everything, and you do not attend to Fifi, and you took the peasants to the kitchen against my order." You know yourself that I did not know anything about it. Tatyána told me to take them to the kitchen, and I did not know by whose order it was.

Fédor Iványch. Did she talk to you about it?

Yákov. This very minute. Fédor Iványch, intercede for me! My family has just been getting on its legs, and if I should lose this place, who knows when I should find another? Fédor Iványch, do me the favour!

Scene XV. Fédor Iványch, First Footman, and Anna Pávlovna seeing off Old Countess, with false teeth and hair. First Footman puts the wraps on the Countess.

Anna Pávlovna. Of course. I am truly touched.

Countess. If it were not for my ill health, I should come to see you more frequently.

Anna Pávlovna. Really, you ought to try Peter Petróvich. He is rough, but no one will soothe you better. Everything is so simple and clear with him.

Countess. No, I am used to my own doctor.

Anna Pávlovna. Look out!

Countess. Merci, mille fois merci!

Scene XVI. The same and Grigóri (dishevelled, in agitation, runs out from the butler's room. Behind him is seen Semén).

Semén. You leave her alone!

Grigóri. I will teach you, rascal, how to fight! You good-for-nothing!

Anna Pávlovna. What is this? Are you in an inn?

Grigóri. I can't stand this coarse peasant.