ALEXÁNDRA IVÁNOVNA. But still, the strength of his convictions is astonishing. See what he endures! They tell him that as long as he persists in refusing to serve, he will either remain where he is or be sent to the fortress; but his reply is always the same. And yet Lisa says he is full of joy and even merry!
MARY IVÁNOVNA. Fanatic! But here comes Alexander Mikáylovich!
Enter Alexander Mikáylovich Starkóvsky,35 an elegant man in evening dress.
STARKÓVSKY. I am afraid I have come too soon. Kisses the hands of both ladies.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. So much the better.
STARKÓVSKY. And Lyúbov Nikoláyevna?36 She proposed to dance a great deal so as to make up for the time she has lost, and I have undertaken to help her.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. She is sorting favours for the cotillion.
STARKÓVSKY. I will go and help her, if I may?
MARY IVÁNOVNA. Certainly.
As Starkóvsky is going out he meets Lyúba in evening, but not low-necked, dress carrying a cushion with stars and ribbons.
LYÚBA. Ah! here you are. Good! Now you can help me. There are three more cushions in the drawing-room. Go and fetch them all.
STARKÓVSKY. I fly to do so!
MARY IVÁNOVNA. Now, Lyúba; friends are coming, and they will be sure to hint and ask questions. May we announce it?
LYÚBA. No, Mamma, no. Why? Let them ask! Papa will not like it.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. But he knows or guesses; and he will have to be told sooner or later. I think it would be better to announce it to-day. Why, C’est le secret de la comédie.37
LYÚBA. No, no, Mamma, please don’t. It would spoil our whole evening. No, no, you must not.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. Well, as you please.
LYÚBA. All right then: after the dance, just before supper.
Enter Starkóvsky.
LYÚBA. Well, have you got them?
MARY IVÁNOVNA. I’ll go and have a look at the little ones. Exit with Alexándra Ivánovna.
STARKÓVSKY carrying three cushions, which he steadies with his chin, and dropping things on the way Don’t trouble, Lyúbov Nikoláyevna, I’ll pick them up. Well, you have prepared a lot of favours. If only I can manage to lead the dance properly! Ványa, come along.
VÁNYA bringing more favours This is the whole lot. Lyúba, Alexander Mikáylovich and I have a bet on, which of us will win the most favours.
STARKÓVSKY. It will be easy for you, for you know everybody here, and will gain them easily, while I shall have to charm the young ladies first before winning anything. It means that I am giving you a start of forty points.
VÁNYA. But then you are a fiancé, and I am a boy.
STARKÓVSKY. Well no, I am not a fiancé yet, and I am worse than a boy.
LYÚBA. Ványa, please go to my room and fetch the gum and the pin-cushion from the what-not. Only for goodness’ sake don’t break anything.
VÁNYA. I’ll break everything! Runs off.
STARKÓVSKY takes Lyúba’s hand Lyúba, may I? I am so happy. Kisses her hand The mazurka is mine, but that is not enough. One can’t say much in a mazurka, and I must speak. May I wire to my people that I have been accepted and am happy?
LYÚBA. Yes, to-night.
STARKÓVSKY. One word more: how will Nicholas Ivánovich take it? Have you told him? Yes?
LYÚBA. No, I haven’t; but I will. He will take it as he now takes everything that concerns the family. He will say, “Do as you think best.” But he will be grieved at heart.
STARKÓVSKY. Because I am not Cheremshánov? Because I am a Maréchal de la Noblesse?
LYÚBA. Yes. But I have struggled with myself and deceived myself for his sake; and it is not because I love him less that I am now doing not what he wants, but it is because I can’t lie. He himself says so. I do so want to live!
STARKÓVSKY. And life is the only truth! Well, and what of Cheremshánov?
LYÚBA excitedly Don’t speak of him to me! I wish to blame him, to blame him whilst he is suffering; and I know it is because I feel guilty towards him. All I know is that I feel there is a kind of love — and I think a more real love than I ever felt for him.
STARKÓVSKY. Lyúba, is that true?
LYÚBA. You wish me to say that I love you with that real love — but I won’t say it. I do love you with a different kind of love; but it is not the real thing either! Neither the one nor the other is the real thing — if only they could be mixed together!
STARKÓVSKY. No, no, I am satisfied with mine. Kisses her hand Lyúba!
LYÚBA pushes him away No, let us sort these things. They are beginning to arrive.
Enter Princess with Tónya and a little girl.
LYÚBA. Mamma will be here in a moment.
PRINCESS. Are we the first?
STARKÓVSKY. Some one must be! I have suggested making a gutta-percha dummy to be the first arrival!
Enter Styópa, also Ványa carrying the gum and pin-cushion.
STYÓPA. I expected to see you at the Italian opera last night.
TÓNYA. We were at my Aunt’s, sewing for the charity-bazaar.
Enter Students, Ladies, Mary Ivánovna and a Countess.
COUNTESS. Shan’t we see Nicholas Ivánovich?
MARY IVÁNOVNA. No, he never leaves his study to come to our gathering.
STARKÓVSKY. Quadrille, please! Claps his hands. The dancers take their places and dance.
ALEXÁNDRA IVÁNOVNA approaches Mary Ivánovna He is terribly agitated. He has been to see Borís, and he came back and saw there was a ball, and now he wants to go away! I went up to his door and overheard him talking to Alexander Petróvich.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. Well?
STARKÓVSKY. Rond des dames. Les cavaliers en avant!38
ALEXÁNDRA IVÁNOVNA. He has made up his mind that it is impossible for him to live so, and he is going away.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. What a torment the man is! Exit.
Curtain.
Scene 2
Nicholas Ivánovich’s room. The dance music is heard in the distance. Nicholas Ivánovich has an overcoat on. He puts a letter on the table. Alexander Petróvich, dressed in ragged clothes, is with him.
ALEXANDER PETRÓVICH. Don’t worry, we can reach the Caucasus without spending a penny, and there you can settle down.
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. We will go by rail as far as Túla, and from thence on foot. Well, I’m ready. Puts letter in the middle of the table, and goes to the door, where he meets Mary Ivánovna Oh! Why have you come here?
MARY IVÁNOVNA. Why indeed? To prevent your doing a cruel thing. What’s all this for? Why d’you do it?
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Why? Because I cannot continue living like this. I cannot endure this terrible, depraved life.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. It is awful. My life — which I give wholly to you and the children — has all of a sudden become “depraved.” Sees Alexander Petróvich Renvoyez au moins cet homme. Je ne veux pas qu’il soit témoin de cette conversation.39
ALEXANDER PETRÓVICH. Comprenez. Toujours moi partez.40
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Wait for me out there, Alexander Petróvich, I’ll come in a minute.
Exit Alexander Petróvich.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. And what can you have in common with such a man as that? Why is he nearer to you than your own wife? It is incomprehensible! And where are you going?
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. I have left a letter for you. I did not want to speak; it is too hard; but if you wish it, I will try to say it quietly.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. No, I don’t understand. Why do you hate and torture your wife, who has given up everything for you? Tell me, have I been going to balls, or gone in for dress, or flirted? My whole life has been devoted to the family. I nursed them all myself; I brought them up, and this last year the whole weight of their education, and the managing our affairs, has fallen on me.…
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH interrupting But all this weight falls on you, because you do not wish to live as I proposed.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. But that was impossible! Ask anyone! It was impossible to let the children grow up illiterate, as you wished them to do, and for me to do the washing and cooking.
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. I never wanted that!
MARY IVÁNOVNA. Well, anyhow it was something of that kind! No, you are a Christian, you wish to do good, and you say you love men; then why do you torture the woman who has devoted her whole life to you?
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. How do I torture you? I love you, but …
MARY IVÁNOVNA. But is it not torturing me to leave me and to go away? What will everybody say? One of two things, either that I am a bad woman, or that you are mad.
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Well, let us say I am mad; but I can’t live like this.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. But what is there so terrible in it, even if once in a winter (and only once, because I feared you would not like it) I do give a party — and even then a very simple one, only ask Mánya and Barbara Vasílyevna! Everybody said I could not do less — and that it was absolutely necessary. And now it seems even a crime, for which I shall have to suffer disgrace. And not only disgrace. The worst of all is that you no longer love me! You love everyone else — the whole world, including that drunken Alexander Petróvich — but I still love you and cannot live without you. Why do you do it? Why? Weeps.
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. But you don’t even wish to understand my life; my spiritual life.
MARY IVÁNOVNA. I do wish to understand it,
