SHPIGELSKY. To-morrow, if you like. ... I should rather think so! Bravo, Vera Alexandrovna! You're a young lady of spirit! I'll gallop over to him at once. Won't he be overjoyed. . . . Well, this is an unexpected turn of affairs! Why, he worships the ground you tread on, Vera Alexandrovna. . . .
VERA [with impatience]. I didn't ask you that, Ignaty Ilyitch.
SHPIGELSKY. As you please, Vera Alexandrovna, as you please. Only you'll be happy with him, you'll be grateful to me, you'll see. . . . [VERA makes a gesture of impatience.] There, I'll hold my tongue. ... So then I can tell him? . . .
VERA. You can, you can.
SHPIGELSKY. Very good. So I'll set off at once. Good-bye. [Listens.]. And here's somebody coming, by the way. [Goes towards study and in the doorway makes a grimace expressing surprise to himself.] Good-bye for the present. [Goes out]
VERA [looking after him]. Anything in the world is better than staying here. [Stands up.] Yes, I have made up my mind. I won't stop in this house ... not for anything. I can't endure her soft looks, her smiles, I can't bear the sight of her, basking and purring in her happiness. . . . She's happy, however she pretends to be sad and sorrowful. . . . Her caresses are unbearable. . . .
[BELIAYEV appears in the door of the outer room. He looks round and goes up to VERA.]
BELIAYEV [in a low voice]. Vera Alexandrovna, you're alone?
VERA [looks round, starts, and after a moment, brings out], Yes.
BELIAYEV. I'm glad to find you alone. ... I should not have come in here otherwise. Vera Alexandrovna, I've come to say good-bye to you. VERA. Good-bye?
BELIAYEV. Yes, I'm going away. VERA. You are going away? You too? BELIAYEV. Yes ... I too. [With intense suppressed feeling.] You see, Vera Alexandrovna, I can't stay here. I've done so much harm here already. Apart from my having--I don't know how--disturbed your peace of mind and Natalya Petrovna's, I've broken up old friendships. Thanks to me, Mr. Rakitin is leaving this house, you have quarrelled with your benefactress. . . . It's time to put a stop to it all. After I am gone, I hope everything will settle down and be right again. . . . Turning rich women's heads and breaking young girls' hearts is not in my line. . . . You will forget about me, and, in time perhaps, will wonder how all this could have happened. ... I wonder even now. . . . I don't want to deceive you, Vera Alexandrovna; I'm frightened, I'm terrified of staying here. ... I can't answer for anything. . . . And you know I'm not used to all this. I feel awkward. ... I feel as though everybody's looking at me. . . . And in fact it would be impossible for me .. . now . . . with you both. . . .
VERA. Oh, don't trouble yourself on my account! I'm not staying here long.
BELIAYEV. What do you mean?
VERA. That's my secret. But I shan't be in your way, I assure you.
BELIAYEV. Well, but, you see, I must go. Think; I seem to have brought a plague into this house, everyone's running away. . . . Isn't it better for me to disappear before more harm's done? I have just had a great talk with Mr. Rakitin. . . . You can't imagine how bitterly he spoke. . . . And he might well jeer at my new coat. . . . He's right. Yes, I must go. Would you believe it, Vera Alexandrovna, I'm longing for the minute when I shall be racing along the high road in a cart. I'm stifling here, I want to get into the open air. I can't tell you how grieved and at the same time light-hearted I feel, like a man setting off on a long journey overseas; he's sad and sick at parting from his friends, yet the sound of the sea is so joyful, the wind is so fresh in his face, that it sets his blood dancing, though his heart may ache. . . . Yes, I'm certainly going. I'll go back to Moscow, to my old companions, I'll set to work. . . .
VERA. You love her, it seems, Alexey Nikolaitch; you love her, yet you are going away.
BELIAYEV. Hush, Vera Alexandrovna, why do you say that? Don't you see that it's all over? It flared up and has gone out like a spark. Let us part friends. It's time. I've come to my senses. Keep well, be happy, we shall see each other again some day. ... I shall never forget you, Vera Alexandrovna. . . . I'm very fond of you, believe me. . . . [Presses her hand and adds hurriedly.] Give this note to Natalya Petrovna for me. . . .
VERA [glancing at him embarrassed]. A note?
BELIAYEV. Yes ... I can't say good-bye to her.
VERA. But are you going at once?
BELIAYEV. This minute. ... I have not said anything to anybody . . . except Mihail Alexandritch. He approves. I'm going to walk from here to Petrovskoe. There I shall wait for Mihail Alexandritch and we shall drive on to the town together. I'll write from there. My things will be sent on after me. You see it's all settled. But you can read the note. There's only a couple of words in it.
VERA [taking the note from him]. And you are really going?
BELIAYEV. Yes, yes. . . . Give her that note and say . . . No, there's no need to say anything. . . . What's the use? [Listening.] Here they come. Good-bye. [Rushes to the door, stops an instant in the doorway, then runs away. VERA is left with the note in her hand. NATALYA PETROVNA comes in.]
NATALYA PETROVNA [going up to VERA]. Verotchka. . . . [Glances at her and breaks off.] What's the matter?
[VERA holds out the note without a word.] A note? From whom?
VERA [in a toneless voice]. Read it.
NATALYA PETROVNA. You frighten me. [Reads the note in silence and suddenly presses both hands to her face and sinks into an armchair. A long silence]
VERA [approaching her]. Natalya Petrovna.
NATALYA PETROVNA [not taking her hands from her face]. He is gone! . . . He wouldn't even say good-bye to me. . . . Oh, to you he said good-bye, anyway!
VERA [sadly]. He doesn't love me. . . .
NATALYA PETROVNA [taking her hands from her face and standing up]. But he has no right to go off like this. . . . I will ... He can't do this. . . . Who told him he might break away so stupidly. . . . It's simply contempt. ... I . . . how does he know I should never have the courage. . . . [Sinks into the armchair.] My God! my God!
VERA. Natalya Petrovna, you told me yourself just now that he must go. . . . Remember.
NATALYA PETROVNA. You are glad now. . . . He is gone. . . . Now we are equal. [Her voice breaks]
VERA. Natalya Petrovna, you said to me just now; these were your very words; instead of tormenting each other hadn't we better think together how to get out of this position, how to save ourselves. . . . We are saved now.
NATALYA PETROVNA [turning away from her almost with hatred]. Ah! ...
VERA. I understand, Natalya Petrovna; don't worry yourself. ... I shan't burden you with my company long. We can't live together.
NATALYA PETROVNA [tries to hold out her hand to VERA but lets it fall on her lap]. Why do you say that, Verotchka? . . . Do you too want to leave me? Yes, you are right, we are saved now. All is over . . . everything is settled again. . . .
VERA [coldly]. Don't disturb yourself, Natalya Petrovna. [She looks at NATALYA PETROVNA without speaking. ISLAYEV comes out of the study]
ISLAYEV [after looking for a moment at NATALYA PETROVNA, aside to VERA]. Does she know that he is going?