[Puts out the candles.]

LEBEDEV [walking behind her]: Zyuzyushka, we must give our guests something to eat ...

ZINAIDA SAVISHNA: Oh what a lot of candles ... that’s why people think we’re rich. [Puts them out.]

LEBEDEV: Zyuzyushka, really you should give people something to eat ... They’re young, and probably hungry, poor things ... Zyuzyushka...

ZINAIDA SAVISHNA: The Count didn’t finish his glass of tea. The sugar’s just been wasted. [She goes out by the left-hand door.]

[LEBEDEV spits contemptuously and goes out into the garden.]

VI

[Enter IVANOV and SASHA.]

SASHA [entering with Ivanov by the right-hand door]: Everyone’s gone out into the garden.

IVANOV: That’s how it is, Shurochka. Once I worked hard and thought a lot but I never got tired; now I do nothing and think of nothing, but I’m tired in body and spirit. My conscience aches day and night, I feel deeply guilty but I don’t understand where I am actually at fault. And add to that my wife’s illness, my lack of money, the constant bickering, gossip, unnecessary conversations, that stupid Borkin ... My home has become loathsome to me and I find living there worse than torture. I’ll tell you frankly, Sasha, I can’t even stand the company of my wife who loves me. You are my old friend and you won’t be angry at my openness. I came to your house to find entertainment, but I’m bored here too, and I want to go home again. Forgive me, I’ll now quietly go away.

SASHA: Nikolay Alekseyevich, I understand you. Your unhappiness lies in the fact that you’re lonely. You need someone by you to love and understand you. Only love can renew you.

IVANOV: A great idea, Shurochka. It only remains for this sodden old rooster to strike up a new romance! God keep me from such a misfortune! No, my clever young thing, it’s not a question of romance. I say as before God that I will endure everything — depression and mental illness and ruin and the loss of my wife and premature old age and loneliness — but I cannot tolerate, cannot endure being ridiculous in my own eyes. I’m dying of shame at the thought that I, a healthy, strong man, have turned into some sort of Hamlet or Manfred,16 some sort of ‘superfluous man’17 ... devil knows precisely what! There are pitiful people who are flattered by being called Hamlet or superfluous men, but for me it’s a disgrace! It stirs up my pride, I’m overcome by shame and I suffer ...

SASHA[laughing but with tears in her eyes]: Nikolay Alekseyevich, let’s run off to America.

IVANOV: I feel too lazy to get to that door, and you’re talking about America ... [They go towards the doors to the garden.] Shurochka, your life here is really difficult. When I look at the people around you, I’m afraid: who could you marry here? There’s only the hope that some passing subaltern or student will steal you and carry you off ...

VII

[The same and ZINAIDA SAVISHNA.]

[Enter ZINAIDA SAVISHNA by the left-hand door with a pot of jam.]

IVANOV: I’m sorry, Shurochka, I’ll catch up with you ...

[SASHA goes out into the garden.]

Zinaida Savishna, I have a request to make of you ...

ZINAIDA SAVISHNA: What do you want, Nikolay Alekseyevich?

IVANOV [stuttering]: You see, the fact is, the day after tomorrow is the payment date of my promissory note. You would oblige me extremely if you granted a deferment or allowed me to add the interest to the capital sum. At the moment I have absolutely no money ...

ZINAIDA SAVISHNA [in a panic]: Nikolay Alekseyevich, how can you? What a way to behave! No, don’t argue, for God’s sake, don’t torment an unhappy creature ...

IVANOV: I’m sorry, I’m sorry ... [Goes out into the garden.]

ZINAIDA SAVISHNA: Lord how he frightened me! ... I’m all of a tremble ... all of a tremble ... [Goes out by the right-hand door.]

VIII

[KOSYKH.]

KOSYKH [enters by the left-hand door and crosses the stage]: I had in diamonds ace, king, queen and a sequence of eight, the ace of spades and one ...