ANNA PETROVNA (out the window). Sergey! Sergey! Who’s there? Call Sergey Pavlovich!
VOINITSEV. What can I do for you?
ANNA PETROVNA. There you are! Let me have a minute!
VOINITSEV. Right away! (to Sofya Yegorovna.) We’ll leave tomorrow, if you don’t change your mind. (Goes into the house.)
SOFYA YEGOROVNA (after a pause). This is getting to be a real problem! I already go whole days without thinking about my husband, ignoring his presence, paying no attention to what he says . . . He’s starting to get on my nerves . . . What am I to do? (Thinks.) It’s dreadful! We haven’t been married very long and already . . . And all because of that . . . Platonov! I haven’t the strength, the character, nothing that could help me resist that man! He persecutes me all day long, tracks me down, his sharp eyes don’t let me alone for a moment . . . It’s dreadful . . . and stupid, after all! I haven’t even got the strength to answer for myself! If he were to make a move, anything might happen!
SCENE VI
SOFYA YEGOROVNA and PLATONOV.
PLATONOV comes out of the house.
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Here he comes! His eyes are roaming, looking for someone! Whom is he looking for? From his way of walking I can see whom he’s after! How despicable of him not to leave me alone for a moment!
PLATONOV. It’s hot! Shouldn’t be drinking . . . (On seeing Sofya Yegorovna.) You here, Sofya Yegorovna? All on your lonesome? (Laughs.)
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Yes.
PLATONOV. Avoiding the mortals.
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. There’s no reason for me to avoid them. They don’t bother me or get in my way.
PLATONOV. Really? (Sits beside her.) May I? But if you aren’t avoiding people, why, Sofya Yegorovna, are you avoiding me? What for? Excuse me, let me finish! I’ve very glad that I can finally have a word with you. You avoid me, pass me by, don’t look at me . . . Why is this? Are you being funny or serious?
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. I wasn’t intending to avoid you! Where did you get that idea?
PLATONOV. At first your attitude seemed to be friendly toward me, you favored me with your kind attention, and now you don’t even want to see me! I go into one room — you go into another, I walk into the garden—you walk out of the garden, I start to talk to you, you clam up or say some flat, mopey “yes” and walk away . . . Our relationship has changed into a kind of misunderstanding . . . Is it my fault? Am I repulsive? (Gets up.) I don’t feel at fault in any way. Please be so kind right now as to spare me this boarding-school-miss, stupid situation! I don’t intend to put up with it any longer!
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. I admit I . . . do avoid you a bit . . . If I’d known that you found it unpleasant, I would have behaved differently . . .
PLATONOV. You do avoid me? (Sits down.) You admit it? But . . . what for, what’s the point?
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Don’t shout, I mean . . . don’t talk so loudly! I hope you’re not going to scold me. I don’t like it when people shout at me. I am not avoiding you as a person, but talks with you . . . As a person you are, so far as I know, a good man . . . Everyone here loves you, respects you, some even admire you, consider it an honor to converse with you . . .
PLATONOV. Oh come on . . .
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. When I first came here, right after our first talk, I became one of your fans myself, but, Mikhail Vasilich, I was unlucky, luck definitely did not come my way . . . You soon became almost unbearable to me . . . I can’t put it less harshly, forgive me . . . Almost every day you talked to me about how you loved me once, how I loved you, and so on . . . A student loved a girl, a girl loved a student . . . the story is too old and ordinary for anyone to talk about it so much and for either of us to invest any special significance in it . . . That’s not the point, though . . . The point is that when you talked to me about the past, you . . . you talked as if you were asking for something, as if back then, in the past, you had failed to obtain something that you wanted to have now . . . Every day your tone was monotonously the same, and every day it struck me that you were hinting at some sort of obligation laid on the two of us by our common past . . . And then it struck me that you are attaching too much significance . . . or, to put it more plainly, exaggerating our relationship as close friends! You stare so strangely, get carried away, shout, grab my hand, and follow me around . . . As if you were spying on me! What is it for? . . . In short, you won’t leave me alone . . . What is this surveillance all about? What am I to you? Honestly, one might think you were lying in wait for the right moment, which would somehow serve your purposes . . .
Pause.
PLATONOV. Is that all? (Gets up.) Merci for your candor! (Goes to the door.)
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Are you angry? (Gets up.) Wait, Mikhail Vasilich! Why take offense? I didn’t mean . . .
PLATONOV (stops). Eh you!
Pause.
So it turns out that you are not sick and tired of me, but that you’re scared, a coward . . . Are you a coward, Sofya Yegorovna? (Walks up to her.)
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. Stop, Platonov! You’re a liar! I was not scared and I don’t intend to be scared!
PLATONOV. Where’s your will power, where’s the force of your well-regulated mind, if every slightly above-average man who comes along can pose a threat to your Sergey Pavlovich! I used to hang around here long before you showed up, but I talked to you, because I took you to be an intelligent woman who might understand! What deeply entrenched depravity! Nevertheless . . . Sorry, I got carried away . . . I have no right to say that to you . . . Forgive me for my bad manners . . .
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. No one gave you the right to say such things! Just because people listen to you, it doesn’t follow that you have the right to say whatever comes into your head! Get away from me!
PLATONOV (roars with laughter). People are persecuting you?! Following you around, grabbing you by the hand? They want to abduct you, poor creature, from your husband?! Platonov is in love with you, the eccentric Platonov?! What happiness! Bliss! Why, what bonbons to feed our petty vanity, such as no candy store ever offered! Ridiculous . . . Gorging on sweets is out of character for a progressive woman! (Exits into the house.)
SOFYA YEGOROVNA. You’re rude and impertinent, Platonov! You’ve gone crazy! (Follows him and stops in the doorway.) It’s horrid! Why did he say all that? He wanted to confuse me . . . No, I won’t put up with it . . . I will go and tell him . . . (Exits into the house.)
SCENE VII
OSIP, YAKOV, and VASILY.
OSIP (enters). Five down! Six to go! What the hell are they up to! Would have had better luck playing cards with ‘em . . . Ten rubles a game . . . Whist or poker . . . (To Yakov.) How’re ya, Yasha! That fella . . . u-u-uh . . . Vengerovich here?