Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov (Illustrated) (365 page)

SCENE IX.

VENGEROVITCH I and OSSIP (in the depth of scene),

PLATONOV and GREKOVA.

PLATONOV (laughing). What, what? How? Have I heard aright?

GREKOVA. Heard aright? I’ll repeat it if you like... I’ll express myself even more emphatically... Your feelings will not be outraged, of course . . . you’re so used to all sorts of indignities that my words will scarcely prove a novelty to you. . . .

PLATONOV. Speak them, speak them, my beauty! GREKOVA. I’m not a beauty. He who considers me a beauty is lacking in taste... Do you really consider me beautiful? Speak frankly.

PLATONOV. I’ll tell you later... You speak first what you have to say!

GREKOVA. Listen then . . . You’re either an extraordinary man, or ... a worthless wretch . . . one of the two.

PLATONOV (laughs).

GREKOVA. GO on laughing! It’s a laughing matter. (Laughs.)

PLATONOV (still laughing). To think that she said it!

You little silly! Go on speaking! (Puts his arm round her waist.)

GREKOVA {sitting down). Allow me to . . .

PLATONOV. To think that she goes among other people! She philosophizes, is occupied with chemistry, and makes such utterances! (Kisses her.) What a handsome, original creature!

GREKOVA. Allow me to . . . But I did not say . . . (She rises and sits down again.) Why do you kiss me? I did not . . .

PLATONOV. You said it, and what you said was astonishing. Isn’t it what you intended? Let him see what a clever girl I am! (Kisses her.) Look how abashed she is . . . Ah!

GREKOVA. You . . . Do you love me? Yes? Yes?

PLATONOV (in a piping voice). And do you love me? GREKOVA. If . . . if . . . that is . . . yes . . . (Weeps.) Do you love me? You couldn’t have done this otherwise... Do you love me?

PLATONOV. Not a drop, my beauty! But I love little fools, sinner that I am! I love a fool of a girl, and that only from having nothing better to do. Oh, you’ve grown pale! And there’s a gleam in your eyes! Know, then, our kind!

GREKOVA (rises from her seat). Are you making mock of me? (Pause.)

PLATONOV. She’s ready to smack my face... GREKOVA. I am proud. ... I wouldn’t soil my hands... I’ve just told you, dear sir, that you’re either an extraordinary man or a wretch. Now I can tell you that I think you an extraordinary wretch! I detest you! (Goes toward the house.) I’ll not repay you now. ... I’m glad to find out the sort of bird you are... (Enter Triletzky.)

SCENE X .

The SAME and TRILETZKY {in a top-hat).

TRILETZKY (comes in). What a noise the cranes are making! Where do they come from? {Looks above.) So early . . .

GREKOVA. Nikolai Ivanitch, if you respect me or yourself even a little, you will refuse to know this man! {Points to Platonov.)

TRILETZKY {laughing). Have mercy! This is my most esteemed relative. GREKOVA. And friend?

TRILETZKY. And friend.

GREKOVA. I don’t envy you. I don’t envy him either. You’re a decent man, but . . . this jesting tone . . . There are times when one is fed up with your jokes. ... I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I feel humiliated, and you go on jesting! {She weeps.) I’m humiliated . . . but I’m proud. Know this man, then . . . love him . . . bow down before his mind . . . fear him... You all appear to see in him a likeness to Hamlet... Well, go on taking pleasure in him! That’s none of my affair. ... I don’t expect anything from you...

Go on jesting with him to your heart’s content . . . with this worthless wretch! (Goes into the housed)

TRILETZKY (after a pause). Did you eat her up?

PLATONOV. I ate nothing...

TRILETZKY. It’s time, Mikhail Vassilyitch, in all honour, in all conscience, you left her in peace. Upon my word, it’s shameful. You’re such a big, such a clever man, yet are up to such pranks... There, she called you a worthless wretch... {Pause.) How am I to divide myself in halves, one half of which is to respect you and the other to sympathize with the girl who called you a worthless wretch?

PLATONOV. Don’t respect me, so it won’t be necessary for you to divide yourself in halves...

TRILETZKY. But I can’t help respecting you! You don’t know what you are saying.

PLATONOV. There remains the alternative: don’t sympathize with her. I don’t understand you, Nikolai! You’re a clever man . . . what good have you found in the little fool?

TRILETZKY. H’m . . . The general’s widow has often reproached me for my deficiency as a gentleman, and has always pointed you out to me as a model of what a gentleman should be... And, in my opinion, this reproach might be particularly aimed at you... Let me ask you: is it the act of a gentleman to cry at the street corners that I’m in love with her? And you laugh at me, mock me, spy on me. . . .

PLATONOV. Express yourself more clearly.

TRILETZKY. I think I’ve expressed myself clearly enough. And, to my face, you’ve called her fool, riffraff . . . and you call yourself a gentleman! Gentlemen know that people in love have a certain amour p-opre... She’s no fool, brother! She’s no fool! She’s a needless sacrifice, that’s what she is! There are moments when one has the desire to hate someone, to annoy someone, to hurt and offend someone... Why not try it on her? She is handy! And she is frail, silent, and looks at you so trustingly. ... I understand all this very well... {He rises.) Come, let’s have a drink!

OSSIP {to Vengerovitch). If you don’t give me the rest of the money then, I’ll steal a hundred. Never fear, I’ll do it!

VENGEROVITCH i {to Ossip). Not so loud, please! When you are laying it on, don’t forget to say to him, “You grateful tavern-keeper!” Sh-h . . . No, off with you! {He goes into the house.)

OSSIP {goes away).

TRILETZKY. The devil take it! Abram Abramitch! {To Vengerovitch.) Abram Abramitch, you’re not ill?

VENGEROVITCH I. It’s nothing... Thank God, I’m well.

TRILETZKY. What a pity! And I need money so badly! Don’t you believe me? I’m in the last extremity.

VENGEROVITCH i. It follows, doctor, that you need patients in the last extremity? {Laughs.)

TRILETZKY. A clever jest. But a hard one to swallow!
Ha! Ha! Ha! And again Ha!
Ha! Ha! Laugh, Platonov! Do laugh, if you can manage it!

VENGEROVITCH i. As it is, doctor, you owe me money.

TRILETZKY. Why say it? Who doesn’t know it? How much do I owe you?

VENGEROVITCH I. Let’s see . . . Oh, yes. Two hundred and forty-five roubles, I think.

TRILETZKY. Lend me some money, generous man! Oblige me, and I’ll oblige you some day. Come, be good, and generous, and brave! The bravest Jew is one who gives loans without a note! Be the bravest Jew, Abram Abramitch!

VENGEROVITCH I. H’m . . . Jew . . . It’s Jews this, and Jews that. ... I assure you, gentlemen, during my whole life I’ve not met a single Russian who gave money without a note. And I assure you that nowhere more than among dishonest Jews is there such a wide practice of lending of money without a note! . . . May God kill me on the spot, if I lie! {He sighs.) You young people might learn a great deal, with profit to yourselves, from us Jews, and especially from old Jews. ... A great deal, indeed . . . {He takes a wallet from his pocket.) You accept money with eagerness and pleasure, and then you love to make a jest about it. ... It isn’t right, gentlemen! I’m an old man ... I have children... You think me a scoundrel, yet you expect me to act like a human being. ... Is that why you’ve gone to the university? . . .

TRILETZKY. You express yourself well, Abram Abramitch!

VENGEROVITCH i. No, not well, gentlemen, but badly... One might think that between you, cultured folk, and my clerks there’s no difference... How much do you want?

TRILETZKY. As much as you’ll give... {Pause.)

VENGEROVITCH I. I can give you fifty rubles... {Hands over the money.)

TRILETZKY. That’s excellent! {Takes the money.)

VENGEROVITCH I. Doctor, you’re wearing my hat!

TRILETZKY. Yours, is it? H’m . . . {Takes the hat off.) There, take it... Why don’t you have it cleaned? It won’t cost much. How’s top-hat in Hebrew?

VENGEROVITCH i. As you like. {Puts his hat on.)

TRILETZKY. D’you know, a top-hat becomes you. You look quite like a baron! Why don’t you buy yourself a baronetcy?

VENGEROVITCH I. I don’t know anything! Let me be in peace!

TRILETZKY. You’re great! Why don’t they want to understand you?

VENGEROVITCH I. Why don’t they want to let me be in peace, that’s what I’d like to know! (Goes into the house.)

SCENE XI.

PLATONOV and TRILETZKY.

PLATONOV. Why did you take this money from him?

TRILETZKY. Just so . . . (He sits down.)

PLATONOV. What do you mean5 just so?

TRILETZKY. I’ve taken it, isn’t that enough? You’re not sorry for him?

PLATONOV. That has nothing to do with it!

TRILETZKY. What then?

PLATONOV. You don’t know?

TRILETZKY. No, I don’t.

PLATONOV. You lie, you do know! (Pause.) [There are people in this world, my dear fellow, who won’t light a cigarette, speak nonsense to a woman, put a boot on, without first having looked into his regulations... Their regulations are everything to them . . . And they’ll depart into the next life according to such and such paragraph... They’re dry, these pedants, and they never take a step anywhere without their regulations... But . . .] For such beings as you, rules are as essential as daily bread... {Pause.)

TRILETZKY. I don’t know anything... Not for us, brother, [such is God’s judgment] is it given to reform our flesh! Not for us to overcome it. ... I knew this even while I was a student with you in high school and received such low marks for my Latin... Let’s not waste time talking nonsense... Come, let’s have a drink!

PLATONOV. No. It’s stifling in there.

TRILETZKY. Then I’ll go alone. (Stretches himself.) By the way, what do those letters “S. V.” stand for? Sofya Voinitzev or Sergey Voinitzev? Whom did our philologist wish to honour with those letters . . . himself or his wife?

PLATONOV. It’s his money that’s paying for this! [I’m astonished at the careless way the Voinitzevs are spending their money. The fireworks must cost at least twenty-five roubles, the champagne a hundred, the wine and the vodka another hundred... In short, three hundred roubles will pay for this hateful evening. Three hundred roubles! They must have borrowed five hundred from Vengerovitch... Three hundred squandered tonight... As for the rest, Sergey will probably buy himself a bicycle or his wife a watch. . . .]

[TRILETZKY. They are planning an amateur spectacle.

PLATONOV. Of course! They’ll want a hundred and fifty for decorations alone... And they are up to the hilt in debt... The general’s widow will surely have to give up her mines to Vengerovitch! They’re playing all sorts of pranks with the es- tate... It’s sad and pitiful, all the more as they pass for clever people! ]

TRILETZKY. Yes... What’s happening to the widow tonight? She laughs, sighs, and kisses everyone... It’s as if she were in love...

PLATONOV. Whom possibly can she find to love here? Herself, perhaps. Don’t believe in her laughter. It’s impossible to believe in the laughter of a clever woman who never weeps. Take my word for it: our widow is not so anxious to weep as to shoot herself. It is evident in her eyes. . . .

TRILETZKY. Women don’t take to shooting, they prefer poison as a way out... But we won’t philosophize... When I philosophize I lie terribly. ... A fine little woman is our widow! In general, I have abominable thoughts when I look at a woman. But this is the one woman who banishes my worst thoughts. The one woman . . . When I look on her genuine face, I begin to believe in platonic love. Are you coming?

PLATONOV. No.

TRILETZKY. Then I’ll go alone... I’ll have a drink with the priest... (He goes, and runs into Glagolyev II in the doorway.) Ah! Your Excellency, self-made count! Here’s three roubles for you! {Sticks three roubles into his hands and goes in.)