Page:Five Russian plays and one Ukrainian.pdf/74

 : What are they?


 * The diary of my great-grandfather.


 * What an antiquity!


 * It has enchanted me.


 * The antiquity?


 * I was enchanted by his old masterly way of life, beautiful, merry; d’you understand, it enchanted me ? And to reproduce it even approximately became my sacred dream.


 * You were always a dreamer.


 * Look! the dream has come true! I live where he lived, in the same apartments, with the same habits. I took these girls—come nearer, Grusha!—these dear girls as slaves, and then there’s Egórich


 * What an extraordinary likeness to Baroness Nordman!


 * That poor woman died recently.


 * Really? How sad! She was a truly advanced woman. The feminist movement lost much by her death. Lord! how fervently she insisted upon equal rights with men!


 * And how terribly her soul wished to tremble before a man’s strength! Know this—she was a real woman. She sought her ravisher,