Without a dowry / Бесприданница. Книга для чтения на английском языке

Oh come now! As if there aren’t others just as good as him!

Larisa. Of course, some are even better. I know that myself, very well.

Mme Ogudalov. They’re better all right, only they’re not for the likes of us.

Larisa. Right now even this one’s good enough for me. But why talk about it, it’s all decided.

Mme Ogudalov. I’m just glad you like him, thank God for that! I’m not going to judge him before you, but we don’t have to pretend to each other, you’re not blind.

Larisa. I’ve become blind, I’ve lost all my feelings, and I’m glad of it.

For a long time now everything around me’s been like a dream. No, I simply must leave here, I must tear myself away. I’ll keep after Yuly Kapitonych. Soon summer will be over, and I want to walk through the woods, to pick berries and mushrooms…

Mme Ogudalov. So that’s why you’ve gotten yourself a basket! Now I understand. Get yourself a straw hat with a wide brim, and then you’ll be a shepherd girl.

Larisa.

I’ll get a hat too. (She sings.)

O tempt me not if there’s no need.[5 - “O tempt me not if there’s no need…" (Ne iskushai menia bez nuzhdy…) Romance by M. I. Glinka, words by E. A. Baratynsky.]

It’s calm and quiet there.

Mme Ogudalov. But when September comes it won’t be so quiet; the wind will blow at your window.

Larisa. So what?

Mme Ogudalov. The wolves will howl in different keys.

Larisa. Still, it will be better than here. At least my soul will have some rest.

Mme Ogudalov. Do you think I’m trying to talk you out of it? Go there, please do, and let your soul have its rest. But you must realize, Zabolotye is no Italy. I have to tell you that so you won’t be disillusioned. You’d blame me for not warning you.

Larisa. Thanks. But even if it will be wild there, and far away, and cold, for me, after the kind of life I’ve had here, every quiet nook will seem like heaven. Why Yuly Kapitonych is putting it off is something I can’t understand.

Mme Ogudalov. But why should he want to rush off to the country! He wants to do some showing off. And no wonder. He was nothing, and now he’s become somebody.

Larisa (sings). O tempt me not if there’s no need… How irritating, I just can’t get the right key. (She looks out the window.) Ilya, Ilya! Come in for a minute! I’ll take some songs with me to the country to play and sing when I’m bored.

Ilya enters.

Ilya.