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

Somebody ought to marry her.

Knurov. Marry her! Not everybody can, and not everybody even wants to. Me, for example, I’m a married man.

Vozhevatov. Then there’s nothing to be done. The grapes are pretty but not for picking,[2 - Altered quotation from the fable “The Fox and the Grapes” (Lisitsa i vinograd) by I. Krylov based on Aesop’s fable with the same title.] Moky Parmenych.

Knurov. You think so?

Vozhevatov. That’s the way it seems. They don’t follow those procedures. There were a few times when they could have, but they weren’t tempted.

Knurov. But it would be nice to make a trip to the Paris exposition with a girl like that.

Vozhevatov. Yes, that wouldn’t be boring, a pleasant trip that. What plans you have, Moky Parmenych!

Knurov. And you’ve never had any plans like that?

Vozhevatov. How could I! I’m green at such things.

I just don’t have any boldness with women. You know, I was brought up in a terribly moral, old-fashioned way.

Knurov. Oh come now! Your chances are better than mine; you have youth, a big thing. And you won’t begrudge the money; you’re buying the boat cheap, so you can take it out of the profits. Still, you must realize it would cost you as much as the Swallow.

Vozhevatov. Every piece of goods has its price, Moky Parmenych. I may be young, but I won’t overdo it. I won’t give any more than I have to.

Knurov. Don’t guarantee it! At your age it wouldn’t take much to fall in love, and then we’d see what calculations you’d make!

Vozhevatov.

Knurov. What sort of thing?

Vozhevatov. What they call love.

Knurov. That’s commendable, you’ll make a good merchant. All the same, you’re a lot closer to her than the others.

Vozhevatov. But what does my being close to her amount to? Sometimes I’ll pour her an extra glass of champagne when her mother’s not looking, learn a song from her, bring her novels, the kind they don’t give girls to read.

Knurov. In other words, you’re corrupting her a little.

Vozhevatov. What’s that to me! After all, I’m not forcing myself on her. Why should I worry about her morals? I’m not her guardian.

Knurov. I just can’t get over it. Does Larisa Dmitriyevna really have no other suitors besides Karandyshov?

Vozhevatov. She had some, but she’s terribly naive.