Vassya? Don't you believe in the miracle?
FRIAR
Yes, I do. But I can't bear to see all this. They all behave like drunks, and shout and make a noise. You can't understand what they are talking about. They crushed that woman. (With pain and disgust) They squeezed the life out of her. Oh, Lord, I simply can't! And the whole business. Father Kirill keeps grunting "Oui, oui, oui." (Laughs sadly) Why is he grunting?
LIPA (sternly)
You learned that from Savva.
FRIAR
No, I didn't. Tell me, why is he grunting? (Laughs sadly) Why?
[Yegor Tropinin enters dressed in holiday attire, his beard and hair combed. He looks extremely solemn and stern.
YEGOR
Why are you here, eh? And in that kind of dress? You're a fine sight.
LIPA
I had no time to get dressed.
YEGOR
But you found time to get here. What you have no business to do you have time for, but what you should do you have no time for. Go home and get dressed. It isn't proper. Who has ever seen such a thing?
LIPA
Oh, papa!
YEGOR
There is nothing to "oh" about. It's all right, papa is papa, but you see I am properly dressed. I dressed and then went out. That's the right way to do. Yes. It's a pleasure to look at myself sideways. I dressed as was proper, yes. On a day like this you ought to give a hand at the counter. Tony has disappeared, and Polya can't do all the work herself. You needn't be making such a face now.
MERCHANT (passing by)
Congratulate you on the miracle, Mr. Tropinin!
YEGOR
Thank you, brother, the same to you. Wait, I'll go with you. You are a goose, Olympiada. You have always been a goose, and you have remained a goose to this day.
MERCHANT
You'll have a fine trade now.
YEGOR
If it please the Lord! Why are you so late? Have you been sleeping?
You keep sleeping, all of you, all the time. (They go out)
FRIAR
I scattered all the fireflies I caught on the road when I ran last night. And now the crowd has trampled them down. I wish I had left them in the woods. Listen to the way they are shouting. I wonder what's the matter. They must have squeezed somebody to death again.
LIPA (closing her eyes)
When you talk, Vassya, your words seem to pass by me. I hear and I don't hear. I think I should like to stay this way all my life without moving from the spot. I should like to remain forever with my eyes shut, listening to what is going on within me. Oh, Lord! What happiness! Do you understand, Vassya?
FRIAR
Yes, I understand.
LIPA
No. Do you understand what it is that has happened to-day? Why, it means that God has said—God Himself has said: "Wait and do not fear. You are miserable. Never mind, it's nothing, it's only temporary. You must wait. Nothing has to be destroyed. You must work and wait." Oh, it will come, Vassya, it will come. I feel it now, I know it.
FRIAR
What will come?
LIPA
Life, Vassya, real life will come. Oh, mercy! I still feel like crying for joy. Don't be afraid.
[Speransky and Tony enter, the latter very gloomy, glancing sideways and sighing. In a queer way he sometimes recalls Savva his gait and look.
SPERANSKY
Good morning, Miss Olympiada. Good morning, Vassya. What an extraordinary event, if we are to believe what people say.
LIPA
Believe, Mr. Speransky, believe.
SPERANSKY
You judge in a very simple offhand manner. If, however, you take into consideration the fact that it is highly probable that nothing exists, that even we ourselves do not exist—
TONY
Keep quiet.
SPERANSKY
Why? There is no miracle for me, Miss Olympiada. If at this moment, for example, everything on this earth were suddenly to be suspended in the air, I shouldn't regard it as a miracle.
LIPA
As what then? You're a very peculiar man.
SPERANSKY
I should look on it simply as a change. It was first one thing and then it became another. If you wish, I'll admit that for me the very fact that things are as they are is in itself a miracle. All are glad and rejoicing but I sit and think: "Time is blinking his eyes now, and there is a change. The old people are dead, and in their places appear the young. And they are apparently glad and rejoicing too."
TONY
Where is Savva?
LIPA
Why do you want him?
SPERANSKY
He has been looking for Mr. Savva ever so long. We have looked everywhere, but have not been able to find him.
FRIAR
He was here awhile ago.
TONY
Where did he go?
FRIAR
To the monastery, I think.
TONY (pulling Speransky)
Come.
SPERANSKY
Good-bye, Miss Olympiada. How they are shouting over there! The time will come when they will all be silent. (They go off)
FRIAR (disturbed)
Why are they looking for Mr. Savva?
LIPA
I don't know.
FRIAR
I
