The Collected Works of Anton Chekhov. Anton Chekhov
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The carriage is waiting.
ASTROFF. Goodbye.
HELENA. You promised me you would go away yourself to-day.
ASTROFF. I have not forgotten. I am going at once. [A pause] Were you frightened? Was it so terrible?
HELENA. Yes.
ASTROFF. Couldn’t you stay? Couldn’t you? Tomorrow — in the forest —
HELENA. No. It is all settled, and that is why I can look you so bravely in the face. Our departure is fixed. One thing I must ask of you: don’t think too badly of me; I should like you to respect me.
ASTROFF. Ah! [With an impatient gesture] Stay, I implore you! Confess that there is nothing for you to do in this world. You have no object in life; there is nothing to occupy your attention, and sooner or later your feelings must master you. It is inevitable. It would be better if it happened not in Kharkoff or in Kursk, but here, in nature’s lap. It would then at least be poetical, even beautiful. Here you have the forests, the houses half in ruins that Turgenieff writes of.
HELENA. How comical you are! I am angry with you and yet I shall always remember you with pleasure. You are interesting and original. You and I will never meet again, and so I shall tell you — why should I conceal it? — that I am just a little in love with you. Come, one more last pressure of our hands, and then let us part good friends. Let us not bear each other any ill will.
ASTROFF. [Pressing her hand] Yes, go. [Thoughtfully] You seem to be sincere and good, and yet there is something strangely disquieting about all your personality. No sooner did you arrive here with your husband than every one whom you found busy and actively creating something was forced to drop his work and give himself up for the whole summer to your husband’s gout and yourself. You and he have infected us with your idleness. I have been swept off my feet; I have not put my hand to a thing for weeks, during which sickness has been running its course unchecked among the people, and the peasants have been pasturing their cattle in my woods and young plantations. Go where you will, you and your husband will always carry destruction in your train. I am joking of course, and yet I am strangely sure that had you stayed here we should have been overtaken by the most immense desolation. I would have gone to my ruin, and you — you would not have prospered. So go! E finita la comedia!
HELENA. [Snatching a pencil off ASTROFF’S table, and hiding it with a quick movement] I shall take this pencil for memory!
ASTROFF. How strange it is. We meet, and then suddenly it seems that we must part forever. That is the way in this world. As long as we are alone, before Uncle Vanya comes in with a bouquet — allow me — to kiss you goodbye — may I? [He kisses her on the cheek] So! Splendid!
HELENA. I wish you every happiness. [She glances about her] For once in my life, I shall! and scorn the consequences! [She kisses him impetuously, and they quickly part] I must go.
ASTROFF. Yes, go. If the carriage is there, then start at once. [They stand listening.]
ASTROFF. E finita!
VOITSKI, SEREBRAKOFF, MME. VOITSKAYA with her book, TELEGIN, and SONIA come in.
SEREBRAKOFF. [To VOITSKI] Shame on him who bears malice for the past. I have gone through so much in the last few hours that I feel capable of writing a whole treatise on the conduct of life for the instruction of posterity. I gladly accept your apology, and myself ask your forgiveness. [He kisses VOITSKI three times.]
HELENA embraces SONIA.
SEREBRAKOFF. [Kissing MME. VOITSKAYA’S hand] Mother!
MME. VOITSKAYA. [Kissing him] Have your picture taken, Alexander, and send me one. You know how dear you are to me.
TELEGIN. Goodbye, your Excellency. Don’t forget us.
SEREBRAKOFF. [Kissing his daughter] Goodbye, goodbye all. [Shaking hands with ASTROFF] Many thanks for your pleasant company. I have a deep regard for your opinions and your enthusiasm, but let me, as an old man, give one word of advice at parting: do something, my friend! Work! Do something! [They all bow] Good luck to you all. [He goes out followed by MME. VOITSKAYA and SONIA.]
VOITSKI [Kissing HELENA’S hand fervently] Goodbye — forgive me. I shall never see you again!
HELENA. [Touched] Goodbye, dear boy.
She lightly kisses his head as he bends over her hand, and goes out.
ASTROFF. Tell them to bring my carriage around too, Waffles.
TELEGIN. All right, old man.
ASTROFF and VOITSKI are left behind alone. ASTROFF collects his paints and drawing materials on the table and packs them away in a box.
ASTROFF. Why don’t you go to see them off?
VOITSKI. Let them go! I — I can’t go out there. I feel too sad. I must go to work on something at once. To work! To work!
He rummages through his papers on the table. A pause. The tinkling of bells is heard as the horses trot away.
ASTROFF. They have gone! The professor, I suppose, is glad to go. He couldn’t be tempted back now by a fortune.
MARINA comes in.
MARINA. They have gone. [She sits down in an armchair and knits her stocking.]
SONIA comes in wiping her eyes.
SONIA. They have gone. God be with them. [To her uncle] And now, Uncle Vanya, let us do something!
VOITSKI. To work! To work!
SONIA. It is long, long, since you and I have sat together at this table. [She lights a lamp on the table] No ink! [She takes the inkstand to the cupboard and fills it from an ink-bottle] How sad it is to see them go!
MME. VOITSKAYA comes slowly in.
MME. VOITSKAYA. They have gone.
She sits down and at once becomes absorbed in her book. SONIA sits down at the table and looks through an account book.
SONIA. First, Uncle Vanya, let us write up the accounts. They are in a dreadful state. Come, begin. You take one and I will take the other.
VOITSKI. In account with [They sit silently writing.]
MARINA. [Yawning] The sand-man has come.
ASTROFF. How still it is. Their pens scratch, the cricket sings; it is so warm and comfortable. I hate to go. [The tinkling of bells is heard.]
ASTROFF. My carriage has come. There now remains but to say goodbye to you, my friends, and to my table here, and then — away! [He puts the map into the portfolio.]
MARINA. Don’t hurry away; sit a little longer with us.
ASTROFF. Impossible.
VOITSKI. [Writing] And carry forward from the old debt two seventy-five —
WORKMAN comes in.
WORKMAN. Your carriage is waiting, sir.
ASTROFF. All right. [He hands the WORKMAN his medicine-case, portfolio, and box] Look out, don’t crush the portfolio!
WORKMAN. Very well, sir.
SONIA. When shall we see you again?
ASTROFF. Hardly before next summer. Probably not this winter, though, of course, if anything should happen you will let me know. [He shakes hands with them] Thank you for your kindness, for your hospitality, for everything! [He goes up to MARINA and kisses her head] Goodbye, old nurse!
MARINA. Are you going without your tea?
ASTROFF. I don’t want any, nurse.
MARINA. Won’t you have a drop of vodka?
ASTROFF. [Hesitatingly] Yes, I might.
MARINA goes out.
ASTROFF. [After a pause] My off-wheeler has gone lame for some reason. I noticed it yesterday when Peter was taking him