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ELENA ANDREYEVNA and DYADIN sitting on a bench under the window ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Ilya Ilyich dear, tomorrow you’ll drive over again to the post office.

DYADIN: Most certainly.

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: I shall wait another three days. If I get no answer to my letter from my brother, I’ll borrow some money from you and go to Moscow. I can’t stay for ever at your mill.

DYADIN: Just so! … (A pause.) I dare not give you advice, my deeply respected lady, but all your letters, telegrams, and my daily journeys to the post office — all these, pardon me, are labour lost. Whatever answer your brother may send you, all the same you will go back to your husband.

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: I shan’t go back… One must be logical, Ilya Ilyich. I do not love my husband. The young people, of whom I was fond, were unjust to me all along. Why should I go back there? You will say — duty. … I too know this perfectly well, but, I say again, one must be logical.

(A pause.)

DYADIN: Yes! … The greatest Russian poet, Lomonosov, ran away from the Archangel province to seek his fortune in Moscow. This was certainly noble of him… But why did you run away? Your happiness, if we fairly consider the matter, is nowhere to be found. … It was appointed that the canary should sit in its cage and look on at the happiness of others; well, it must sit there all its life long.

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: Perhaps I’m not a canary, but a free sparrow!

DYADIN: O-oh! A bird is judged by its flight, my deeply respected lady… During these last two weeks any other lady would have managed to be in ten towns, and would have thrown dust in everybody’s eyes; but you have only ventured to run as far as the mill, and even this has worn your soul out… No, no! You’ll stay here a short time longer, your heart will be softened, and you’ll return to your husband.

(Listening.) Someone’s coming in a carriage. (Getting up.)

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: I’ll go in.

DYADIN: I dare not trouble you any more with my presence… I’ll go to the mill to have a little nap. … I rose this morning before Aurora.

ELENA ANDREYEVNA: After you’ve had your nap, come and we’ll have tea together. (Goes into the house.)

DYADIN (alone): If I lived in an intellectual centre, they could draw a caricature of me for a magazine, with a very funny satirical inscription. Gracious! I, at my time of life and with an unattractive appearance, to have carried off a famous professor’s young wife! That is fascinating!

[Goes away.