Savva and the Life of Man Part 12

KONDRATY

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!

SAVVA

Amen! You're very late, my gracious lord!

KONDRATY

I did the will of him who sent me. I was picking young little cuc.u.mbers for the Father Superior. He has them made into a dainty dish which he loves dearly for an appetizer. My, what infernal heat! I was in pools of perspiration before I got through.

SAVVA _(to Lipa)_

You see, here is a monk. He likes a drink. His cussing vocabulary isn't bad. He is no fool, and as to women--

KONDRATY

Don't embarra.s.s the young lady, Mr. Tropinin. In the presence of a lady--

SAVVA

And furthermore, he doesn't believe in G.o.d.

KONDRATY

He is joking.

LIPA

I don't like such jokes. What have you come here for?

KONDRATY

I am here by invitation.

SAVVA

I have some business with him.

LIPA _(without looking at Savva)_

What have you come here for?

SAVVA

For nothing that concerns you. You had better have a talk with him. He is a chap that possesses a great deal of curiosity. He's not a fool, either, but knows what's what.

LIPA _(looking searchingly at Savva)_

I know him well, I know him very well.

KONDRATY

To my regret I must admit it's true. I have the unenviable fortune of being known as a man who does not observe the outer forms of conduct.

It is on account of that characteristic I was fired from my position as government clerk, and it's on that account I am now frequently condemned to live for weeks on nothing but bread and water. I cannot act in secret. I am open and above-board. In fact, I fairly cry aloud whatever I do. For example, the circ.u.mstances under which I met you, Mr. Tropinin, are such that I am ashamed to recall them.

SAVVA

Don't recall them then.

KONDRATY _(to Lipa)_

I was lying in a mud puddle in all my dignity, like a regular hog.

LIPA _(disgusted)_

All right.

KONDRATY

But I am not ashamed to speak of it; first, because many people saw it, and of course n.o.body took the trouble to get me out of it except Savva Yegorovich, and secondly, because I regard this as my cross.

LIPA

A fine cross!

KONDRATY

Every man, Miss Olympiada, has his cross. It isn't so very nice to be lying in a mud puddle. Dry ground is pleasanter every time. And do you know, I think half of the water in that puddle was my own tears, and my woeful lamentations made ripples on it--

SAVVA

That's not quite so, Kondraty. You were singing a song: "And we're baptized of him in Jordan"--to a very jolly tune at that.

KONDRATY

You don't say! What of it? So much the worse. It shows to what depths a man will descend.

SAVVA

Don't a.s.sume a melancholy air, father. You're quite a jovial fellow by nature, and the a.s.sumption of grief doesn't go well with your face, I a.s.sure you.

KONDRATY

True, Savva Yegorovich, I was a jolly fellow; but that was before I entered the monastery. As soon as I came here I took a tumble, so to speak; I lost my joviality and serenity and learned to know what real sorrow is.

_[Tony enters and remains standing in the doorway gazing ecstatically at the monk._

SAVVA