Chapter 2 of Kap dochka: translation problem: 'kuma' and 'dyachikha'

[Robert Chandler]

Dear all,

And another question!

-  Эх,  батюшка Петр  Андреич!  - отвечал  он с глубоким  вздохом.  -
Сержусь-то  я на  самого себя; сам я кругом виноват. Как мне было оставлять
тебя  одного  в трактире!  Что  делать? Грех  попутал: вздумал забрести  к
дьячихе,  повидаться  с кумою. Так-то: зашел к куме, да засел в тюрьме. Беда
да и только! Как покажусь я на глаза господам?  что скажут они, как  узнают,
что дитя пьет и играет.

Pyotr Andreich has just spend a day on his own in an inn.  He has got badly
drunk and lost a lot of money.  Savelich is blaming himself for leaving
Pyotr on his own for so long.  He went off for the day in order to go to the
market, etc, and buy stores for the journey.  I am not sure how much of his
speech I should understand literally.

This sentence - Так-то: зашел к куме, да засел в тюрьме - is clearly a
pogovorka, or an improvised pogovorka.  But what about the sentence before?
Did he really visit a dyachikha he knew?  Or is this sentence also some kind
of joke?  Is it even possible that the virtuous Savelich visited a
prostitute?

Poka,

Robert

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