Well, goodbye, Anya, I shall be back towards one.

ANNA PETROVNA: Kolya, my dearest, stay at home.

IVANOV [with emotion]: My love, my unhappy darling, I beg you, don’t stop me going out in the evenings. It’s cruel and unjust on my part, but let me commit that injustice. It’s an agony for me at home. As soon as the sun disappears, my spirit begins to be weighed down by depression. What depression! Don’t ask why. I myself don’t know. I swear by God’s truth I don’t know. Here I’m in anguish, I go to the Lebedevs and there it’s still worse; I return from there and here it’s depression again, and so all night ... Simply despair! ...

ANNA PETROVNA: Kolya, why don’t you stay! We will talk as we used to ... We’ll have supper together, we’ll read ... I and the old grouch have been practising a lot of duets for you ... [Embraces him.] Stay! ...

 

[A pause.]

I don’t understand you. It’s been going on for a whole year. Why have you changed?

IVANOV: I don’t know, I don’t know ...

ANNA PETROVNA: And why don’t you want me to go out with you in the evenings?

IVANOV: If you must have it, well, I’ll tell you. It’s a bit cruel to say it, but better so ... When I’m really depressed, I ... I begin to stop loving you. Also I then avoid you. Very simply, I have to leave the house.

ANNA PETROVNA: When you’re depressed? I understand, I understand ... Do you know what, Kolya? Try and sing, laugh, get angry, as you once did ... You stay in, we’ll laugh and drink fruit liqueur and we’ll drive away your depression in a flash. I’ll sing if you like. Or else let’s go and sit in the dark in your study as we used to, and you’ll tell me about your depression ... You have such suffering eyes. I’ll look into them and cry, and we’ll both feel better ... [Laughs and cries.] How does it go, Kolya? The flowers come up again every spring, but joy there is none. Is that it? So go off, go ...

IVANOV: Pray to God for me, Anya. [Goes off, stops and thinks.] No, I can’t. [Exit.]

ANNA PETROVNA: Go ... [Sits down by a table.]

LVOV [walking about the stage]: Anna Petrovna, make yourself a rule: as soon as it strikes six o’clock you must go to your rooms and not come out till the next morning.