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remember when you were still acting at the State Theatre, long ago, when I was still a little chap, there was a fight one day in our court, and a poor washerwoman was almost beaten to death. She was picked up unconscious, and you nursed her till she was well, and bathed her children in the washtubs. Have you forgotten it?

. Yes, entirely.

. Two ballet dancers lived in the same house, and they used to come and drink coffee with you.

. I remember that.

. They were very pious. [A pause] I love you again, these last few days, as tenderly and trustingly as I did as a child. I have no one left me now but you. Why, why do you let yourself be controlled by that man?

. You don’t understand him, Constantine. He has a wonderfully noble personality.

. Nevertheless, when he has been told that I wish to challenge him to a duel his nobility does not prevent him from playing the coward. He is about to beat an ignominious retreat.

. What nonsense! I have asked him myself to go.

. A noble personality indeed! Here we are almost quarrelling over him, and he is probably in the garden laughing at us at this very moment, or else enlightening Nina’s mind and trying to persuade her into thinking him a man of genius.

. You enjoy saying unpleasant things tome. I have the greatest respect for that man, and I must ask you not to speak ill of him in my presence.

. I have no respect for him at all. You want me to think him a genius, as you do, but I refuse to lie: his books make me sick.