Page:Plays by Anton Tchekoff (1916).djvu/89

ACT I

good moves you could make. If I were you I should have twenty thousand roubles in a week.

[He goes out; follows him.

. How would you do it? Come, explain.

. There is nothing to explain, it is so simple. [Coming back] Nicholas, give me a rouble.

silently hands him the money.

. Thanks. Shabelski, you still hold some trump cards.

follows him out.

. Well, what are they?

. If I were you I should have thirty thousand roubles and more in a week.

[They go out together.

. [After a pause] Useless people, useless talk, and the necessity of answering stupid questions, have wearied me so, doctor, that I am ill. I have become so irritable and bitter that I don’t know myself. My head aches for days at a time. I hear a ringing in my ears, I can’t sleep, and yet there is no escape from it all, absolutely none.

. Ivanoff, I have something serious to speak to you about.

. What is it?

. It is about your wife. She refuses to go to the Crimea alone, but she would go with you.

. [Thoughtfully] It would cost a great deal for us both to go, and besides, I could not get leave to be away for so long. I have had one holiday already this year.

. Very well, let us admit that. Now to proceed. The best cure for consumption is absolute peace of mind, and your wife has none whatever. She is forever excited by your behaviour to her. Forgive me, I am excited and am going to speak frankly. Your treatment of her is killing her. [A pause] Ivanoff, let me believe better things of you.