The Poor Bride

Well, and what about you, Karpovna?

I do have one, I do, such an ace—not a match for her suitors; but there is an extra log in our parlor an idiom suggesting an unwanted third party is present.

Very well. Go now, Pankratyevna! Come visit again in a few days.

Goodbye, Anna Petrovna. (She leaves, looking fiercely at Karpovna).

Ah, Karpovna, if only you could find us a suitor, I would be so grateful to you. You know yourself, my business is women's work; I know nothing of how one can get by without a man.

Well then, my dear, we went from having nothing to having a fortune literally: "had not a kopek, and suddenly an altyn (three kopeks)". Such an ace, you could not reach him even with your hand.

Who is it—tell me, do not torture me.

Sava Savich, Belugin.

What are you saying, he is a millionaire!

A millionaire, a millionaire.

How did he even come to think of it?

Well, my dear, the children have overwhelmed him. You know what his children are like. He himself does not live in the big house, you know, the one with the balcony. His sons lock themselves in there, and they drink, and they have all sorts of kranbol a game similar to billiards going on. And what have they thought up: one of them jumps out onto the balcony, eyes