Sponsor. How are they to find out? They are all drunk. They are more after the dowry. They are giving the girl two fur coats, six bodices, a French shawl, a big lot of linen, and, they say, two hundred roubles in money.
Neighbour. What pleasure is there in such money? What a shame!
Sponsor. Hush. The suitor is coming. (They grow silent and walk into the vestibule.)
Scene II. Suitor (alone, coming out of the vestibule, and hiccoughing).
Sponsor. I am sweating. Oh, it is so hot. I want to cool off a little. (Stands blowing.) God knows how it is—something wrong—does not please me— Well, an old woman—
Scene III. Suitor and Matréna.
Matréna (coming out of the vestibule). I was looking for the suitor, and here you are. Well, my dear, thank the Lord, everything is done honourably. A suitor must not brag. I do not even know how to brag. You have come to do a good work, and God will grant you to thank me for it all your life. The bride, you know, is a rare one. You will not find such a girl in the whole country.
Suitor. That is so, if only we don't get fooled about the money.
Matréna. Don't mention the money! She has all her parents have left her. In our time one hundred and fifty roubles are not a small matter.
Suitor. We are satisfied, but we do not want to wrong our child,—we want to do it in the best possible manner.
