The Light Shines in Darkness Part 21

Enter Princess with Tonya and a little girl.

LYuBA. Mamma will be here in a moment.

PRINCESS. Are we the first?

STARKoVSKY. Some one must be! I have suggested making a gutta-percha dummy to be the first arrival!

Enter Styopa, also Vanya carrying the gum and pin-cushion.

STYoPA. I expected to see you at the Italian opera last night.

ToNYA. We were at my Aunt's, sewing for the charity-bazaar.

Enter Students, Ladies, Mary Ivanovna and a Countess.

COUNTESS. Shan't we see Nicholas Ivanovich?

MARY IVaNOVNA. No, he never leaves his study to come to our gathering.

STARKoVSKY. Quadrille, please! [Claps his hands. The dancers take their places and dance].

ALEXaNDRA IVaNOVNA [approaches Mary Ivanovna] He is terribly agitated.

He has been to see Boris, 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 Petrovich.

MARY IVaNOVNA. Well?

STARKoVSKY. _Rond des dames. Les cavaliers en avant!_[38]

[38] Starkovsky, directing the dance, says: "Ladies form a circle.

Gentlemen advance!"

ALEXaNDRA IVaNOVNA. He has made up his mind that it is impossible for him to live so, and he is going away.

MARY IVaNOVNA. What a torment the man is! [Exit].

Curtain.

SCENE 2

Nicholas Ivanovich's room. The dance music is heard in the distance.

Nicholas Ivanovich has an overcoat on. He puts a letter on the table. Alexander Petrovich, dressed in ragged clothes, is with him.

ALEXANDER PETRoVICH. Don't worry, we can reach the Caucasus without spending a penny, and there you can settle down.

NICHOLAS IVaNOVICH. We will go by rail as far as Tula, 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 Ivanovna] Oh! Why have you come here?

MARY IVaNOVNA. Why indeed? To prevent your doing a cruel thing. What's all this for? Why d'you do it?

NICHOLAS IVaNOVICH. Why? Because I cannot continue living like this. I cannot endure this terrible, depraved life.

MARY IVaNOVNA. It is awful. My life--which I give wholly to you and the children--has all of a sudden become "depraved." [Sees Alexander Petrovich] _Renvoyez au moins cet homme. Je ne veux pas qu'il soit temoin de cette conversation._[39]

[39] At least send that man away. I don't wish him to be a witness of our conversation.

ALEXANDER PETRoVICH. _Comprenez. Toujours moi partez._[40]

[40] Alexander Petrovich replies in very bad French: "I understand! I am always to go away!"

NICHOLAS IVaNOVICH. Wait for me out there, Alexander Petrovich, I'll come in a minute.

Exit Alexander Petrovich.

MARY IVaNOVNA. 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 IVaNOVICH. 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 IVaNOVNA. 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 b.a.l.l.s, 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 IVaNOVICH [interrupting] But all this weight falls on you, because you do not wish to live as I proposed.

MARY IVaNOVNA. 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 IVaNOVICH. I never wanted that!

MARY IVaNOVNA. 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 IVaNOVICH. How do I torture you? I love you, but ...

MARY IVaNOVNA. 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 IVaNOVICH. Well, let us say I am mad; but I can't live like this.

MARY IVaNOVNA. 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 Manya and Barbara Vasilyevna! 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 Petrovich--but I still love you and cannot live without you. Why do you do it? Why? [Weeps].

NICHOLAS IVaNOVICH. But you don't even wish to understand my life; my spiritual life.

MARY IVaNOVNA. I do wish to understand it, but I can't. I see that your Christianity has made you hate your family and hate me; but I don't understand why!

NICHOLAS IVaNOVICH. You see the others do understand!

MARY IVaNOVNA. Who? Alexander Petrovich, who gets money out of you?

NICHOLAS IVaNOVICH. He and others: Tonya and Vasily Nikonorovich. But even if n.o.body understood it, that would make no difference.