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KHROUSCHOV AND SONYA

SONYA (running after him): Stop! … I heard everything.… Speak! … Speak quickly … or I shan’t bear it any longer and shall start speaking myself!

KHROUSCHOV: Sophie Alexandrovna, I have already said all I wanted to say. I implored your father to spare the wood. Iwas right, but he insulted me, and called me a madman…. I, mad!

SONYA: Please, please! …

KHROUSCHOV: No, mad are not those who beneath their learning hide their cruel, stony heart, and pass off their soullessness for profound wisdom! Mad are not those who marry old men in order to deceive them openly, in order to obtain fashionable, elegant dresses with the money got from the felling of forests!

SONYA: Listen to me, listen! … (Grasping his hands.) Let me say …

KHROUSCHOV: Let us finish it. Let there be an end. I am a stranger to you, I know already your opinion of me, and I’ve nothing more to do here. Goodbye. I am sorry that after our brief friendship, which was so dear to me, I shall only retain the memory of your father’s gout and of your arguments about my democratic sentiments… But it is not I who am to blame for it… No… .

[ Weeping and covering her face, SONYA hurries out by the left door.

KHROUSCHOV: I had the imprudence to fall in love here, it shall be a lesson to me! Out of this dungeon!

(Goes to the right door; ELENA ANDREYEVNA comes in by the left door.)