appearing. Am I not a good enchantress? Hain't I hit it off well? Why don't you speak? You have a tongue in your mouth, hain't you? I'll squeeze a word out of you! It's so hard to make you speak. Have you been shopping?"
"Yes," says Viérotchka; and she trembles.
"Have you seen, have you heard, what's going on?"
"Yes."
"Do they live well, them learned folks? Do they read books, and think as you do about your new plan for folks getting along better? Do they? Tell me!"
Viérotchka says nothing, but she trembles.
"Ek! there ain't nothing to be got out of you. Do they live well? Hear my question!"
Viérotchka says nothing, but she is in a cold sweat.
"One can't git a word out of you! Do they live well? I ask you. Are they good? I ask you. Would you like to be like them? You don't speak! You turn away your phiz! Just listen, Viérotchka, to what I am going to say! You are educated; you are educated on money that I stole. You are thinking about the good; but if I had not been bad, you would not have even known what good is. Do you understand? You owe all to me. You are my daughter. Do you understand? I am your mother!"
Viérotchka weeps and trembles, and is in a cold sweat. "Mámenka, what do you want of me? I cannot love you."
"Do I ask you to love me?"
"I should like at least to respect you; but I cannot do that, either."
"Do I need your respect?"
"What do you want, then, mámenka? Why have you come to me, and why do you speak so harshly to me? What do you want of me?"
"Be grateful, you selfish girl! Do not love, do not respect me? I am a vixen; why should you love me? I am bad; why should you respect me? But you understand, Viérka, that if I were not what I am, you would not be what you are. You are good because I am bad. You are sweet-tempered because I am a vixen. Understand that, Viérka, and be grateful."
"Leave me, Marya Alekséyevna; I want to speak with my sister."
Marya Alekséyevna vanishes.
