Page:Plays by Anton Tchekoff (1916).djvu/191

ACT II

the papers are full of him, his photograph is for sale everywhere, his works have been translated into many foreign languages, and yet he is overjoyed if he catches a couple of minnows. I always thought famous people were distant and proud; I thought they despised the common crowd which exalts riches and birth, and avenged themselves on it by dazzling it with the inextinguishable honour and glory of their fame. But here I see them weeping and playing cards and flying into passions like everybody else.

comes in without a hat on, carrying a gun and a dead sea-gull.

. Are you alone here?

. Yes.

lays the sea-gull at her feet.

. What do you mean by this?

. I was base enough to-day to kill this gull. I lay it at your feet.

. What is happening to you?

[She picks up the gull and stands looking at it.

. [After a pause] So shall I soon end my own life.

. You have changed so that I fail to recognise you.

. Yes, I have changed since the time when I ceased to recognise you. You have failed me; your look is cold; you do not like to have me near you.

. You have grown so irritable lately, and you talk so darkly and symbolically that you must forgive me if I fail to follow you. I am too simple to understand you.

. All this began when my play failed so dismally. A woman never can forgive failure. I have burnt the manuscript to the last page. Oh, if you could only fathom my unhappiness! Your estrangement is to me terrible, incredible; it is as if I had suddenly waked to find this