Ivanov

Ivanov leaves. Lvov approaches her.

LvovAnna Petrovna – you must make it a rule: when the clock strikes six you must come indoors and not go out till morning. The evening air is damp, it’s bad for your chest.

AnnaVery good, sir.

LvovI’m serious.

AnnaI don’t want to be serious. (Coughs.)

LvovYou see?

Shabelsky comes out of the house in hat and coat.

ShabelskyWhere’s Nikolay? Are the horses brought round?

He walks quickly over to Anna and kisses her hand.

Good night, light of my life! (Pulls a funny face.) Gevalt! Exscushe pliz.

Shabelsky hurries out.

LvovIdiot!

Pause. Distant sounds of an accordion can be heard.

AnnaHow unfair! Even the coachmen and cooks are having a party over there. I’m not invited to the ball . . . Yevgeny, what are you marching up and down for? Come and sit down.

LvovI can’t sit down.

Pause.

AnnaThey’re playing ‘The Little Finch’. (Sings.) ’Little finch, little finch, where did you go? Tippling vodka out in the snow.’

Pause.

Do you have a mother and father somewhere?

LvovMy father’s dead, but I have a mother.

AnnaDo you miss her?

LvovI have no time to miss people.

Anna

(laughs) ’Flowers return with every spring, but happiness lingers behind.’ Who taught me that? . . . Can’t remember . . . It must have been Nikolay. (Listens.) There goes that owl again.

LvovLet it.

AnnaI feel I’ve been swindled by life. Most people no better than I am are happy and haven’t had to pay for it. But I’ve paid for absolutely everything . . . paid all I have . . . and I’m still getting final demands. Oy vay. Do you know any funny stories?

LvovMe? No.

AnnaNikolay knows lots. You know, another thing – I’m beginning to be amazed by how unfair people are. Why don’t they repay love with love? – instead of lies? How long do you think my mother and father are going to go on hating me? They live only a day from here. but I can feel their hatred even in my sleep. And what am I to think of poor Nikolay? He says it’s only in the evenings, when he’s at his lowest, that he stops loving me. I try to understand, I bear it patiently but suppose he stopped loving me altogether? Of course I know he won’t, but suppose suddenly he did? No – no I mustn’t . . . (Sings.) ‘Little finch, little finch, where did you go?’ (Shudders.) I have such terrible thoughts sometimes . . .

LvovExplain something to me – explain how a decent, honest, almost saintly woman like you let herself be taken in for so long, and dragged into this miserable mare’s nest. Why are you here? What have you got in common with that heartless – no, leaving aside your husband, what is a woman like you doing in this dead end among these no-hopers? – Oh, my dear God! – that endlessly droning, decrepit, crazy old count, and that crook Borkin with his ugly face – just explain it to me. Why are you here? How did you get here?

Anna(laughs) That’s just how Nikolay used to sound . . . exactly like that . . . and when he got worked up his eyes would blaze like coals! Go on talking, don’t stop!

Lvov(stands up and makes a dismissive gesture with his hand) What’s there to say? Please go indoors . . .

AnnaYou say Nikolay is this, that, and the other, but how would you know? Can you know all about someone in six months? What you have to understand is that Nikolay is a great man! I’m only sorry you never knew him two or three years ago. Back then, oh, he was so attractive! I fell in love with him the first time I saw him. I took one look and – snap! – I was caught. He said, ‘Let’s run off . . . let’s go!’ I stripped my life away just like you’d strip the dead leaves off a stem, and I went.

Pause.

How different everything has turned out. He disappears off to the Lebedevs to amuse himself with other women, and I . . . sit in the garden listening to the screeching of the owl . . .

The watchman is heard knocking.

Doctor, have you got any brothers?

LvovNo.

Anna starts to sob.

What is it? What’s the matter?

Anna(stands up) I can’t stand this. I’m going over there.

LvovWhere?

AnnaOrder the horses to be harnessed.

She goes towards the house.

LvovYou can’t go . . .

AnnaLeave me alone – it’s none of your business. I can’t . . . I’m going to the Lebedevs. Get the horses brought round . . .

She runs into the house.

Lvov(following her indoors) No, I absolutely refuse to treat anybody under these conditions. Not getting a kopek is one thing but being turned into an emotional wreck . . .! – No, I refuse: I’ve had enough.