SASHA No, you’re not, I don’t know you.
OGAREV Why, I patted your behind before you were born! It was the happiest day of my life, that day. We knelt down together, holding hands, your mother and father and my wife and I, and … But you’re right, later I went travelling. (Pause.) No, my happiest day was another day, before that, up on the Sparrow Hills, just where the Cossack had come running down, and your daddy and I … we climbed up to the top where the sun was setting on Moscow spread out below us, and we made a promise to … to be revolutionaries together. I was thirteen then. (He gives a little laugh and looks up.) The storm has missed us.
HERZEN (offstage) Nick … !
Herzen enters with the letter from Orlov.
OGAREV Tell Sasha who I am.
HERZEN Look … from Count Orlov.
He gives the letter to Ogarev, who starts to read it.
HERZEN (cont.) (to Sasha) Nick? Nick is my best friend.
Ogarev returns the letter to Herzen.
OGAREV (to Sasha) See?
Ogarev embraces Herzen in joyous congratulation.
Natalie enters.
A slow fade begins.
Servants enter to clear up the coffee tray, etc.
Ogarev, Herzen, Natalie and Sasha stroll away towards the house, taking the basket of mushrooms.