First Guest. There isn’t any in the dining-room, so it must be somewhere in the pantry. We must find George. Come this way, through the sitting-room.
Avdotia. Oh, how I should like to get my claws into her!
They go out through the door on the right. Martha and Borkin run in laughing from the garden. Shabelski comes mincing behind them, laughing and rubbing his hands.
Martha. Oh, I am so bored! [Laughs loudly] This is deadly! Every one looks as if he had swallowed a poker. I am frozen to the marrow by this icy dullness. [She skips about] Let us do something!
Borkin catches her by the waist and kisses her cheek.
Shabelski. [Laughing and snapping his fingers] Well, I’ll be hanged! [Cackling] Really, you know!
Martha. Let go! Let go, you wretch! What will the Count think? Stop, I say!
Borkin. Angel! Jewel! Lend me twenty-three hundred roubles.
Martha. Most certainly not! Do what you please, but I’ll thank you to leave my money alone. No, no, no! Oh, let go, will you?
Shabelski. [Mincing around them] The little birdie has its charms! [Seriously] Come, that will do!
Borkin. Let us come to the point, and consider my proposition frankly as a business arrangement. Answer me honestly, without tricks and equivocations, do you agree to do it or not? Listen to me; [Pointing to Shabelski] he needs money to the amount of at least three thousand a year; you need a husband. Do you want to be a Countess?
Shabelski. [Laughing loudly] Oh, the cynic!
Borkin. Do you want to be a Countess or not?
Martha. [Excitedly] Wait a minute; really, Misha, these
