Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated) (364 page)

SCENE V.

VOINITZEV and SOFYA (come out of the depths of the garden).

VOINITZEV [You don’t want to understand the sad position in which I find myself. I am suffering, Sofya! Your cold “yes” and “no” are a source of great unhappiness to me. You neither laugh nor smile, and are always silent as if you were thinking of something else. ... I am distressed by this mental obsession of yours, which appears to give you no rest. . . .] What are you thinking of? SOFYA EGOROVNA. Honestly, I don’t know.

VOINITZEV. You resent my help... Surely, I’m in a position to help you! What are all these secrets, Sofya? Secrets from your husband... H’m . . . ( They sit down.)

SOFYA EGOROVNA. Secrets? I myself don’t know what’s happening to me... Don’t torment yourself for nothing. Sergey! Don’t pay any attention to my spleen. [And forgive me for my “yes” and “no”. . . .] (Pause.) Let’s leave this place, Sergey!

VOINITZEV. Leave this place? SOFYA EGOROVNA. Yes.

VOINITZEV. Why?

SOFYA EGOROVNA. I’d like to... Let’s go abroad. Say yes.

VOINITZEV. You’d like that... But why? SOFYA EGOROVNA. It’s very nice here, and gay too, but I can’t . . . Everything is quite all right here, only . . . we ought to go... You promised not to cross-examine me.

VOINITZEV. We shall leave tomorrow. Tomorrow will be our last day here. (Kisses her hand.) You’re bored here! I can understand that too. I understand. The deuce knows, what sort of people are here! The Petrins, the Stcherbooks . . . SOFYA EGOROVNA. They’re not to blame... Let’s not think about them... (Pause.)

VOINITZEV. Where do you women get all this boredom? Why be bored? (Kisses his wife’s cheek.) Enough! Cheer up, now! Live while there’s life! You ought to take Platonov’s recipe for boredom. Oh, that reminds me . . . why don’t you chat with him some times? He’s an amusing fellow! Have a heart-to-heart talk with him. You’ll feel the better for it. And chat with maman oftener . . . and with Triletzky... (He laughs.) Just chat with them, and don’t regard them condescendingly... You may have something to learn from them. ... I recommend them to you, because they are people to my taste. I love them. You will also learn to love them when you know them better.

ANNA PETROVNA (from the window). Sergey! Sergey! Who’s there? Call Sergey Pavlovitch!

VOINITZEV. At your service.

ANNA PETROVNA. YOU there? I want you for a minute.

VOINITZEV. At once. {To Sofya Egorozma.) We’ll leave here tomorrow, unless you change your mind!

(He enters the housed)

SOFYA EGOROVNA (after a pause). This is a real misfortune! I am already in a state where for days I can’t think of my husband. I forget his very existence, and his words have no meaning for me... It’s become a burden... What am I to do? (Becomes thoughtful.) It’s terrible! And it’s such a short time since the wedding... It’s always that . . . Pla- tonov! I have neither the strength nor the character, nothing, to withstand that man! He follows me around from morning till night, looks for me, does not give me any peace when he gazes at me with his understanding eyes... It’s terrible . . . and how stupid! I can’t be responsible for myself! If he takes but a single step . . . anything may happen!

SCENE VI.

SOFYA EGOROVNA AND

PLATONOV.

PLATONOV (comes out of the house).

SOFYA EGOROVNA. There he comes! He’s glancing round, looking for someone! Whom is he seeking?

From his walk I can tell whom he wants to find! It is mean of him to give me no peace.

PLATONOV. I feel hot! It would have been better if I had kept off drink... (Seeing Sofya Egorovna.)

You here, Sofya Egorovna? All alone? (Laughs.)

SOFYA EGOROVNA. Yes.

PLATONOV. Are you avoiding mortals?

SOFYA EGOROVNA. [I don’t avoid people, Mikhail Vassilyevitch! ] It’s not necessary for me to avoid people. I don’t find them unpleasant, and they don’t worry me.

PLATONOV. Yes? (Sits down at her side.) You’ll allow me? (Pause.) If you’re not avoiding people, Sofya Egorovna, why are you avoiding me? Why? Allow me to chat with you! I am glad to have the chance at last of speaking with you. You are avoiding me. What does it mean?

SOFYA EGOROVNA. I never even thought of avoiding you! Where did you get that idea?

PLATONOV. At first you seemed predisposed towards me, and now you don’t even seem to want to see me! When I enter a room you go out of it. When I go into the garden, again you go out of it. I begin talking to you, and you show no inclination to go on... Our relations leave me wholly perplexed... Am I to blame? Am I repugnant to you? [You appear to be running away from me as if from the plague. How, do you suppose, it makes me feel?] (He rises.) Frankly, I don’t feel any guilt. Do try now to save me from this stupid position! I can’t stand it any longer! SOFYA EGOROVNA. I admit I’ve been avoiding you a little. ... If I’d known that it caused you any distress, I would have acted differently.

PLATONOV. SO you are avoiding me! (He sits down.) You admit it? But why . . . what’s the reason? SOFYA EGOROVNA. Don’t shout, that is . . . don’t speak so loudly! I hope you’re not reprimanding me. I don’t like people to shout at me. I don’t strictly avoid you. I only avoid conversations with you. As far as I know, you’re a good man... Everyone loves and respects you here. Some even consider you a superior being, and deem it a privilege to exchange a word with you...

PLATONOV. H’m . . .

SOFYA EGOROVNA. When I arrived here ... it was after our first conversation ... I eagerly joined your circle of listeners. But somehow, Mikhail Vas- silyevitch, I could not go on with it. ... I soon began to think you almost unbearable... Forgive me, if the word sounds harsh to you... You talked to me nearly every day, how once upon a time you had loved me, and how I had loved you, and so forth... The student loved the little girl, the little girl loved the student... It’s an old story and rather ordinary. There’s little need to attach such significance to it... But that’s beside the point... The point is, when you spoke about the past with me, you did it as if you were asking for something, as if in that past you had missed something which you want now... Every time you spoke the tone of your voice was oppressive, but it was always the same. You always seemed to hint of some sort of obligation under which I was bound to you by reason of our mutual past... And you seemed to attach such significance to it... To speak frankly, you want to exceed the proprieties of friendship! You look so strangely, you are angry, you shout, you seize my hand, you follow me around. ... As if you were spying! What’s the object of it all? ... In a word, you give me no peace... Why this surveillance? What am I to you? Really, one might think that you’re waiting for some convenient moment, which for some reason is necessary to you... (Pause.)

PLATONOV. IS that all? (Rises.) Merci for your frankness! (He goes toward the door.) SOFYA EGOROVNA. Are you angry? (She rises.) Don’t go yet, Mikhail Vassilyevitch! And don’t take offence! I didn’t want to . . .

PLATONOV (pausing). Oh you! I am to conclude not that you’re bored with me, but that you’re afraid... You are afraid, Sofya Egorovna? (He approaches her.)

SOFYA EGOROVNA. Stop it, Platonov! You’re lying! I am not afraid!

PLATONOV. Where’s your character, where the strength of a healthy mentality, if every banal man you happen to meet seems dangerous for the well- being of your Sergey Pavlovitch? I came here every day and chatted with you because I considered you a sensible understanding woman! What a deep depravity! ... In any case ... I am to blame, I was tempted. ... I had no right to tell you all this... Forgive me for a shameful prank. SOFYA EGOROVNA. No one gave you the right to say such things! Just because you’re listened to, it does not follow that you have the right to say anything that comes to your tongue! Leave me!

PLATONOV (laughing). So you’re being followed about! You’re being sought for! Your hands are being seized! Someone wants to take you, poor thing, from your husband! Platonov, that odd fellow Platonov, is in love with you! What happiness! What bliss! . . . Ridiculous! Hardly the sort of thing to be expected of an intelligent woman! (He goes into the house.)

SOFYA EGOROVNA. You’re insolent, Platonov! You’re out of your wits! (She follows him, but stops near the door.) It’s terrible! What made him say all this? He wanted to daze me... No, I won’t bear it... I’ll go in and tell him . . . (Goes into the house.)

(OSSIP comes out of the summer-house.)

SCENE VII.

OSSIP, YAKOV and VASSILY.

OSSIP (entering). Five good ones! Six poor ones! The devil knows the sort of thing they take up with! Much better if they played a decent card game... (To Yakov.) Well, Yasha! Is he . . . h’m . . . Vengerovitch here?

YAKOV. Yes, he’s here.

OSSIP. Go call him! On the quiet, like. Tell him there’s a big affair on.

YAKOV. Very well. (Goes into the house.)

OSSIP (tears down a lantern and, extinguishing the flame, puts the lantern into his pocket). During the past year I was in town at Darya Ivanovna’s, who buys stolen goods and runs a drinking establishment with girls, and I played cards with her . . . three copecks a go... The fines reached two roubles, but I won eight... (Tears down another lantern;.) It’s cheerful in town!

VASSILY. Those lanterns weren’t hung up for your benefit! What’s the idea in tearing them down?

OSSIP. I don’t even see you! Well, ass, how do you do? How are you getting on? (Goes up to him.) How’s business? (Pause.) Oh, you horse! Oh, you

swine-herd! (Takes Vassily’s hat from his head.) To look at you is to laugh! Yes, to laugh. Have you but a single drop of brain? (He throws Vassily’s hat on the tree.) Why don’t you hit me across the cheek for being a noxious fellow? VASSILY. Let someone else hit you, but not I!

OSSIP. Maybe you’d like to kill me? If you’ve got any brains you wouldn’t get your crowd to kill me, you’d kill me yourself! Spit into my face, if you will, because I’m a noxious fellow!

VASSILY. I shan’t spit. Why don’t you let me alone?

OSSIP. Aren’t you going to spit at me? That means you’re afraid of me! Then get down on your knees before me! (Pause.) Well? Get down on your knees, I tell you! Whom am I talking to? To the walls or to a live man? (Pause.) Whom am I talking to? VASSILY (falling to his knees). It’s a sin against yourself, Ossip Ivanitch.

OSSIP. Aren’t you ashamed to be on your knees? Well, it pleases me mightily... Here’s a gentleman in a frock coat, and he’s on his knees before a ruffian... Now shout hurrah, if you’ve the spirit left... Well? (Enter Vengerovitch I.)

SCENE VIII.

OSSIP and VENGEROVITCH I.

VENGEROVITCH i (comes out of the house). Who called me?

OSSIP (quickly taking his hat off). It’s I, Your Worship!

VASSILY (rises to his feet, then sits down on a form and weeps).

VENGEROVITCH I. What do you want?

OSSIP. You made inquiries for me at the tavern. So here I’ve come.

VENGEROVITCH i. To be sure. Couldn’t you find a better place?

OSSIP. For good people, Your Excellency, every place is good.

VENGEROVITCH i. I have need of you... Let’s go elsewhere. There’s a form over there. (They go to the form standing in the depth of the scene.) Stand a little way off from me, so that it won’t look as if you talked with me... Thus! Did the tavern- keeper, Liov Solomonitch, send you here?

OSSIP. Quite so.

VENGEROVITCH I. Really . . . it’s not you I wanted, but . . . well, what’s one to do? I shouldn’t like dealing with you... You’re such a wicked man. . . .

OSSIP. Very wicked! The worst on earth. [Abram Abramitch, you surely aren’t in want of good peo- pie!]

VENGEROVITCH I. Not so loud, please! It’s terrible how much money I’ve given you! You don’t seem to appreciate it any more than if it were a stone or some useless object... You allow yourself such insolences, and you’re always thieving. ... So you turn away? The truth doesn’t please you?

OSSIP. I’m not worried about your truth, Your Excellency. Did you call me here only to lecture me?

VENGEROVITCH i. Not so loud, please! . . . Do you know Platonov?

OSSIP. The teacher? Why shouldn’t I know him?

VENGEROVITCH I. Yes, the teacher. The teacher who teaches only how to abuse. How much will you take to cripple this same teacher?

OSSIP. What d’you mean, cripple him?

VENGEROVITCH I. I don’t want you to kill him, but only cripple him. ... It isn’t necessary to kill people... Why kill them? Murder is such a . . . well . . . But to cripple is to beat him up so that he’ll remember it for the rest of his life...

OSSIP. I can manage that.

VENGEROVITCH I. Just break a bone or two. Put a blemish or two on his face... How much will you take? Tsss . . . Someone’s coming... Let’s go a little farther . . . (They go into the depth of the scene. Platonov and Grekova come out of the house.)