MME. KABANOVA. The way young folks behave! It makes one laugh really to see them! If they weren't my own, I could laugh till I split. They don't know the way to do anything properly. Can't even take leave with decorum. A lucky thing it is for them that they have elder folk, who will keep their house together as long as they're living. And yet, the silly fools, they long to be their own masters, though when they do have their own way, they get in a mess directly to the scandal and amusement of all worthy folk. One here and there, to be sure, will be sorry for them, but for the most part they'll all laugh. No one can help laughing either; they'll invite guests, and not know how they should sit, and what's more, as likely as not, they leave out some one of their relations. It's simply comical. But the old order's passing away. There are some houses one doesn't care to go into. If you do cross the threshold, all you can do is to spit, and get away as quick as may be. What will happen when the old people are dead, how the world will go on, I really can't think. I'm thankful anyway, that I shall see nothing of it.

[Enter Katerina and Varvara.