ANNA PETROVNA (peruses the note). Ah . . .
GREKOVA. Did you know, I had him served with a writ . . . (Lays her head on Anna’s breast.) Send for him, Anna Petrovna! Have him come here!
ANNA PETROVNA. What do you want to see him for?
GREKOVA. I want to see the look on his face now . . . What’s he look like now? Send for him! Please do! I want to say a few words to him . . . You don’t know what I’ve done! What I’ve done! Don’t listen, Sergey Pavlovich! (In a whisper.) I went to the superintendent . . . They are transferring Mikhail Vasilich to another job at my request . . . What have I done! (Weeps.) Send for him! . . . Who knew that he would write this letter! Ah, if only I had known! My God . . . I’m in pain!
ANNA PETROVNA. Go into the library, my dear! I’ll come to you right away, then we’ll talk about it . . . I have to speak with Sergey Pavlovich in private . . .
GREKOVA. The library? All right . . . But you’ll send for him? What kind of look is on his face after this letter? Have you read it? Let me hide it! (Hides the letter.) My dear, darling . . . I beg of you! I’ll go . . . but you’ll send for him! Don’t listen, Sergey Pavlovich! Let’s talk in German, Anna Petrovna! Schicken Sie, meine Liebe!83
ANNA PETROVNA. All right . . . Just get going!
GREKOVA. All right . . . (Quickly kisses her.) Don’t be angry with me, my dear! I . . . I’m in agony! You can’t imagine! I’m leaving, Sergey Pavlovich! You can go on with your discussion! (Exits.)
ANNA PETROVNA. I’m going to get this sorted out right now . . . Stop fretting! Maybe there’s a way to patch up your family life . . . Dreadful state of affairs! Who could have expected it! I’ll talk things over with Sofya right now! I’ll put her to a proper interrogation . . . You’re wrong and you’re acting silly . . . And yet, no! (Covers her face with her hands.) No, no . . .
VOINITSEV. No! I’m not wrong!
ANNA PETROVNA. Anyway, I’ll talk things over with her . . . And I’ll go and talk things over with him . . .
VOINITSEV. Go and talk! But it’s no use! (Sits behind the desk.) Let’s get out of here! There’s no hope! And no little straws to grasp at . . .
ANNA PETROVNA. I’ll sort this all out right now . . . And you sit there bawling! Go to bed, you great big man! Where’s Sofya?
VOINITSEV. In her room, I suppose . . .
ANNA PETROVNA exits.
SCENE VI
VOINITSEV and then PLATONOV.
VOINITSEV. The depths of despair! How long is this going to drag on? Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, a week, a month, a year . . . This torment will never end! I should shoot myself.
PLATONOV (enters with his arm in a sling). There he sits . . . Crying, looks like . . .
Pause.
Peace be unto your soul, my poor friend! (Walks over to Voinitsev.) For heaven’s sake, listen to me! I didn’t come to defend my actions . . . It’s not for either of us to judge me . . . I came to make a request not on my behalf, but on yours . . . I ask you as a brother . . . Hate, despise me, think what you like about me, but do not . . . kill yourself! I’m not talking about revolvers, but . . . just in general . . . Your health is poor . . . Grief will do you in . . . I won’t go on living! I’ll kill myself, don’t kill yourself! You want me to die? Want me to stop living?
Pause.
VOINITSEV. I don’t want anything.
Enter ANNA PETROVNA.
SCENE VII
VOINITSEV, PLATONOV, and ANNA PETROVNA.
ANNA PETROVNA. He’s here? (Slowly walks over to Platonov.) Platonov, is it true?
PLATONOV. It’s true.
ANNA PETROVNA. He still dares . . . dares to say it so calmly! It’s true . . . You rotten creature, didn’t you know that this is rotten, despicable?
PLATONOV. Rotten creature . . . Can’t you show a little more courtesy? I knew nothing! All I knew and still do know of this business is that I never wished on him a thousandth part of what he’s going through now!
ANNA PETROVNA. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t keep you, a friend, from knowing that a friend’s wife should not and cannot be a friend’s plaything! (Shouts.) You don’t love her! You were simply bored!
VOINITSEV. Ask him, maman, why he’s come here?
ANNA PETROVNA. Rotten! It’s rotten to play with people! They are the same flesh and blood as you, you extremely clever man!
VOINITSEV (jumps up). He actually came here! The impertinence! Why did you show up here? I know why you showed up, but you won’t dazzle and impress us with your fine-sounding phrases!
PLATONOV. Who do you mean by “us”?
VOINITSEV. Now I know what all those fine-sounding phrases are worth! Leave me in peace! If you came here to expiate your guilt with flowery verbiage, you should know that magniloquent speeches do not expiate guilt!
PLATONOV. If magniloquent speeches do not expiate guilt, then shouting and spitefulness do not establish it, although, as I recall, didn’t I say that I would shoot myself?
VOINITSEV. You won’t expiate your guilt that way! Not by words which I no longer believe! I despise your words! That is how a Russian expiates his guilt! (He points to the window.)
PLATONOV. What’s out there?
VOINITSEV. Out by the well lies a man who has expiated his guilt!
PLATONOV. So I saw . . . Then why are you speechifying, Sergey Pavlovich? After all, I thought you were overwhelmed with grief . . . You wallow in grief and at the same time you ham it up? To what should this be attributed: insincerity or . . . stupidity?
VOINITSEV (sits down). Maman, ask him why he came here?
ANNA PETROVNA. Platonov, what brings you here?
PLATONOV. Ask me yourself, why bother maman? You’ve lost everything! Your wife’s walked out on you—and you’ve lost everything, there’s nothing left! Sophie, as beautiful as a day in May, is an ideal, which eclipses all other ideals! Without a woman a man is like a steam engine without steam! Your life is over, the steam’s evaporated! You’ve lost everything! Honor, and human dignity, and birth and breeding, everything! The end has come!
VOINITSEV. I am not listening. You can leave me out of it!
PLATONOV. Naturally. Don’t insult me, Voinitsev! I didn’t come here to be insulted! Your misery doesn’t give you the right to sling mud at me! I’m a human being, and you should treat me like a human being. You’re unhappy, but you and your unhappiness cannot compare with the sufferings I’ve undergone since you left! It was a horrible night, Voinitsev, after you left! I swear to you humanitarians that your unhappiness isn’t worth one iota of my pain!