The Live Corpse Part 8

"Rest here, just an hour ..."

Come along!

Curtain.

ACT III

SCENE 1

Prince Abrezkov, a sixty-year-old bachelor with moustaches, a retired army man, elegant, very dignified and melancholy-looking.

Anna Dmitrievna Karenina (Victor's mother), a fifty-year-old "grande dame" who tries to appear younger, and intersperses her remarks with French expressions.

Anna Dmitrievna's sitting-room, furnished with expensive simplicity, and filled with souvenirs.

Anna Dmitrievna is writing. Footman enters.

FOOTMAN. Prince Abrezkov ...

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. Yes, certainly ... [Turns round and touches herself up before the looking-gla.s.s].

Enter Abrezkov.

PRINCE ABReZKOV. _J'espere que je ne force pas la consigne...._[8]

[Kisses her hand].

[8] I hope I am not forcing myself on you.

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. You know that _vous etes toujours le bienvenu_[9]--and to-day especially! You got my note?

[9] You are always welcome.

PRINCE ABReZKOV. I did, and this is my answer.

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. Ah, my friend! I begin quite to despair. _Il est positivement ensorcele!_[10] I never before knew him so insistent, so obstinate, so pitiless, and so indifferent to me. He has quite changed since that woman dismissed her husband!

[10] He is positively bewitched!

PRINCE ABReZKOV. What are the facts? How do matters actually stand?

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. He wants to marry her come what may.

PRINCE ABReZKOV. And how about the husband?

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. He agrees to a divorce.

PRINCE ABReZKOV. Dear me!

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. And he, Victor, lends himself to it, with all the abominations--lawyers, proofs of guilt--_tout ca est degoutant_![11] And it doesn't seem to repel him. I don't understand him--he was always so sensitive, so reserved ...

[11] It is all disgusting!

PRINCE ABReZKOV. He is in love! Ah, when a man really loves ...

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. Yes, but how is it that in our day love could be pure--could be a loving friendship, lasting through life? That kind of love I understand and value.

PRINCE ABReZKOV. Nowadays the young generation no longer contents itself with those ideal relations. _La possession de l'ame ne leur suffit plus._[12] It can't be helped!... What can one do with him?

[12] For them, to possess the soul is no longer enough.

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. You must not say that of _him_--but it's as if he were under a spell. It's just as if he were someone else.... You know, I called on her. He begged me so. I went there, did not find her in, and left my card. _Elle m'a fait demander si je ne pourrais la recevoir_;[13] and to-day [looks at the clock] at two o'clock, that is in a few minutes' time, she will be here. I promised Victor I would receive her, but you understand how I am placed! I am not myself at all; and so, from old habit, I sent for you. I need your help!

[13] She inquired whether I would receive her.

PRINCE ABReZKOV. Thank you.

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. This visit of hers, you understand, will decide the whole matter--Victor's fate! I must either refuse my consent--but how can I?

PRINCE ABReZKOV. Don't you know her at all?

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. I have never seen her. But I'm afraid of her. A good woman could not consent to leave her husband, and he a good man, too! As a fellow-student of Victor's he used to visit us, you know, and was very nice. But whatever he may be, _quels que soient les torts qu'il a eus vis-a-vis d'elle_,[14] one must not leave one's husband. She ought to bear her cross. What I don't understand is how Victor, with the convictions he holds, can think of marrying a divorced woman! How often--quite lately--he has argued warmly with Spitsin in my presence, that divorce was incompatible with true Christianity; and now he himself is going in for it! _Si elle a pu le charmer a un tel point_[15] ... I am afraid of her! But I sent for you to know what _you_ have to say to it all, and instead of that I have been doing all the talking myself!

What do you think of it? Tell me your opinion. What ought I to do? You have spoken with Victor?

[14] However he may have wronged her.

[15] If she has been able to charm him to such a degree ...

PRINCE ABReZKOV. I have: and I think he loves her. He has grown used to loving her; and love has got a great hold on him. He is a man who takes things slowly but firmly. What has once entered his heart will never leave it again; and he will never love anyone but her; and he can never be happy without her, or with anyone else.

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. And how willingly Varya Kazantseva would have married him! What a girl she is, and how she loves him!

PRINCE ABReZKOV [smiling]. _C'est compter sans son hote!_[16] That is quite out of the question now. I think it's best to submit, and help him to get married.

[16] That's reckoning without your host!

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. To a divorced woman--and have him meet his wife's husband?... I can't think how you can speak of it so calmly. Is she a woman a mother could wish to see as the wife of her only son--and such a son?

PRINCE ABReZKOV. But what is to be done, my dear friend? Of course it would be better if he married a girl whom you knew and liked; but since that's impossible ... Besides it's not as if he were going to marry a gipsy, or goodness knows who ...! Lisa Protasova is a very nice good woman. I know her, through my niece Nelly, and know her to be a modest, kind-hearted, affectionate and moral woman.

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. A moral woman--who makes up her mind to leave her husband!

PRINCE ABReZKOV. This is not like you! You're unkind and harsh! Her husband is the kind of man of whom one says that they are their own worst enemies; but he is an even greater enemy to his wife. He is a weak, fallen, drunken fellow. He has squandered all his property and hers too. She has a child.... How can you condemn her for leaving such a man? Nor has she left him: he left her.

ANNA DMiTRIEVNA. Oh, what mud! What mud! And I have to soil my hands with it!