Page:Plays by Anton Tchekoff (1916).djvu/65

ACT III

me for not stealing, when it would have been only justice? And I should not now have been a beggar!

. [Sternly] Jean!

. [Agitated] Vanya, old man, don’t talk in that way. Why spoil such pleasant relations? [He embraces him] Do stop!

. For twenty-five years I have been sitting here with my mother like a mole in a burrow. Our every thought and hope was yours and yours only. By day we talked with pride of you and your work, and spoke your name with veneration; our nights we wasted reading the books and papers which my soul now loathes.

. Don’t, Vanya, don’t. I can’t stand it.

. [Wrathfully] What under heaven do you want, anyway?

. We used to think of you as almost superhuman, but now the scales have fallen from my eyes and I see you as you are! You write on art without knowing anything about it. Those books of yours which I used to admire are not worth one copper kopeck. You are a hoax!

. Can’t any one make him stop? I am going!

. Ivan, I command you to stop this instant! Do you hear me?

. I refuse! [ tries to get out of the room, but bars the door] Wait! I have not done yet! You have wrecked my life. I have never lived. My best years have gone for nothing, have been ruined, thanks to you. You are my most bitter enemy!

. I can’t stand it; I can’t stand it. I am going.

[He goes out in great excitement.

. But what do you want? What earthly right have you to use such language to me? Ruination! If this estate is yours, then take it, and let me be ruined!