for not having died yet,
and for being, on the contrary,
a good deal better!
lsn't it a comedy? l don't mind betting
that you don't believe me!
l certainly thought they
invited you with quite other views.
You are not nearly so simple
as they try to make you out!
This is not the time for it,
or l would tell you a thing or two
about that beauty, Gania,
and his hopes.
You are being undermined,
pitilessly undermined, and
and it is really melancholy
to see you so calm about it.
Why, do you think l should be
any happier if l were to feel
disturbed about the excavations
you tell me of?
lt is better to be unhappy
and know the worst,
than to be happy in a fool's paradise!
l suppose you don't believe
that you have a rival in that quarter?
Your insinuations as to rivalry
are rather cynical, Hippolyte.
l don't know what in the world
you are driving at.
Very well. You can't look at anything
but in your exalted, generous way.
However, l see l must make
arrangements to die soon,
or l myself...
Leave me, good-bye.
Look here.
Just give me your opinion:
how do you think l ought to die, now?
l mean--the best, the most virtuous way?
Tell me!
You should pass us by
and forgive us our happiness.
Speak!
Speak!
Speak under the penalty
of a father's curse.
Oh, father's curse be hanged
you don't frighten me that way
-Colia!
-Whose fault is it that you have been as mad
lt is just a week,
you see, l count!
Don't provoke me too much,
or l'll tell all.
And you call yourself an old man,
too, with grey hair,
and father of a family!
Nice sort of a father!
Be quiet, Gania.
Shut up, you fool!
And you Hippolyte be silent!
But what have l done?
Why does he call me a screw?
He came to me himself and began telling me
about some Captain Eropegoff.
l don't wish for your company, general.
What have l to do with Captain Eropegoff?
All l did was to express my opinion that
probably Captain Eropegoff
never existed at all!
Of course he never existed!
There, you see! Even your own son
supports my statement
That there never was such a person
as Captain Eropegoff!
Kapiton Eropegoff
not Captain Eropegoff!
Kapiton major retired
Eropegoff Kapiton.
Kapiton didn't exist either!
What? Didn't exist?
Kapiton didn't exist!
And this is my son
my own son.
Whom l...
Eropegoff
Eroshka Eropegoff didn't exist!
Ha, ha! it's Eroshka now!
No, sir, Kapitoshka
not Eroshka.
l mean, Kapiton Alexeyevitch
retired major
married Maria Petrovna Lu...
he was my friend and companion
l closed his eyes for him
he was killed.
Kapiton Eropegoff never existed!
Kapiton Eropegoff never existed!
Enough of this!
My curse!
Away, out of the house l go!
Colia, bring my bag away!
What have you done?
-What a disgrace it all is!
-Well, he shouldn't steal!
As for you, sir,
you should at least remember
that you are in a strange house and
receiving hospitality,
you should not take the opportunity
of tormenting an old man, sir,
who is too evidently out of his mind.
l don't quite agree with you that your father
is out of his mind.
On the contrary, l cannot help thinking he has
been less demented of late.
He spoke to me about that Kapiton fellow
with an object.
-He wanted me to..
-Oh, devil take what he wanted you to do!
lf you are aware of the real reason
for my father's present condition
you had no right whatever to torment
the unfortunate man, and to worry my mother
by your exaggerations of the affair,
because the whole business is nonsense
simply a drunken freak, and nothing more,
But you must needs spy and watch over us
all, because you are a...
-Screw!
-Because you are a humbug,
and thought fit to worry people for half an hour,
and tried to frighten them into believing
that you would shoot yourself
with your little empty pistol,
pirouetting about and playing at suicide!
l gave you hospitality, you have fattened on it,
your cough has left you, and you repay all this.
Excuse me--two