HELENA. Does he?
SONYA. No, he never notices me.
HELENA. [Thoughtfully] He's a strange man. Listen, Sonya, will you allow me to speak to him? I'll be careful, only hint. [A pause] Really, to be in uncertainty all these years! Let me do it!
SONYA nods an affirmative.
HELENA. Good! It'll be easy to find out whether he loves you or not. Don't be ashamed, sweetheart, don't worry. I'll be careful; he won't notice a thing. We only want to find out whether it is yes or no, don't we? [A pause] And if it is no, then he must stop coming here, is that so?
SONYA nods.
HELENA. It will be easier not to see him any more. We won't put off the examination an instant. He said he had some sketches to show me. Go and tell him at once that I want to see him.
SONYA. [Very agitated] Will you tell me the whole truth?
HELENA. Of course I will. I am sure that no matter what it is, the truth will be easier for you to bear than this uncertainty. Trust me, dearest.
SONYA. Yes, yes. I'll say that you want to see his sketches. [She starts out, but stops near the door and looks back] No, it is better not to know -- at least -- then there may be hope.
HELENA. What do you say?
SONYA. Nothing. [She goes out.]
HELENA. [Alone] There's no greater sorrow than to know another's secret when you can't help them. [In deep thought] He's obviously not in love with her, but why shouldn't he marry her? She's not pretty, but she's so clever and pure and good, she would make a splendid wife for a country doctor of his years. But, no, that' s not exactly it at all. [A pause] I can understand how the poor child feels. She lives here in this desperate loneliness with no one around her except these colourless shadows that go mooning about talking nonsense and knowing nothing except that they eat, drink, and sleep. Among them appears from time to time this Dr. Astrov, so different, so handsome, so interesting, so charming. It's like seeing the moon rise on a dark night. Oh, to surrender oneself to his embrace! To lose oneself in his arms! I'm a little in love with him myself! Yes, I'm lonely without him, and when I think of him I smile. That Uncle Vanya says I have the blood of a mermaid in my veins: "Give free rein to your nature for once in your life!" Perhaps it's right that I should. Oh, to be free as a bird, to fly away from all your sleepy faces and your talk and forget that you have existed at all! But I'm a coward, I'm afraid; my conscience torments me. He comes here every day now. I can guess why, and feel guilty already; I should like to fall on my knees at Sonya's feet and beg her forgiveness, and to cry.
ASTROV comes in carrying a portfolio.
ASTROV. How do you do? [Shakes hands with her] Do you want to see my sketches?
HELENA. Yes, you promised to show me what you had been doing. Have you got time now?
ASTROV. Of course I have!
He lays the portfolio on the table, takes out a sketch and fastens it to the table with thumb-tacks.
ASTROV. Where were you born?
HELENA. [Helping him] In St. Petersburg.
ASTROV. And educated?
HELENA. At the Conservatory there.
ASTROV. Then this probably won't interest you.
HELENA. Oh, why not? It's true I don't know country life very well, but I've read a great deal about it.
ASTROV. I have my own desk there in Ivan's room. When I'm absolutely too exhausted to go on I drop everything and rush over here to forget myself in this work for an hour or two. Ivan and Miss Sonya sit rattling at their counting-boards, the cricket chirps, and I sit beside them and paint, feeling warm and peaceful. But I don't permit myself this luxury very often, only once a month. [Pointing to the picture] Look there! That is a map of our district as it was fifty years ago. The green tints, both dark and light, represent forests. Half the map, as you see, is covered with it. Where the green is striped with red the forests were inhabited by elk and wild goats. Here on this lake, lived great flocks of swans and geese and ducks; as the peasants say, there was a power of birds of every kind. Thick as clouds in the sky. Beside the hamlets and villages, you see, I have dotted down here and there the various settlements, farms, hermit's caves, and water-mills. This country carried a great many cattle and horses, as you can see by the quantity of blue paint. For instance, see how thickly it lies in this part; there were great herds of them here, and every house had three horses. [A pause] Now, look lower down. This is the district as it was twenty-five years ago. Only a third of the map is green now with forests. There are still some elk, but there are no goats left. The blue paint is lighter, and so on, and so on. Now we come to the third part; our country as it appears today. We still see spots of green, but not much. The elk, the swans, the wood-grouse have disappeared. It is, on the whole, the picture of a regular and slow decline which it will evidently only take about ten or fifteen more years to complete. You may perhaps object that it is the march of progress, that the old order must give place to the new, and you might be right if roads and railways had been run through these ruined woods, or if factories and schools had taken their place. The people then would have become better educated and healthier and richer, but as it is, we have nothing of the sort. We have the same swamps and mosquitoes; the same disease and want; the typhoid, the diphtheria, the burning villages. We are confronted by the degradation of our country, brought on by the fierce struggle for existence of the human race. It is the consequence of the ignorance and unconsciousness of starving, shivering, sick humanity that, to save its children, instinctively snatches at everything that can warm it and still its hunger. So it destroys everything it can lay its hands on, without a thought for the morrow. And almost everything has gone, and nothing has been created to take its place. [Coldly] But I see by your face that you're bored.
HELENA. I know so little about such things!
ASTROV. There is nothing to know. It simply isn't interesting to you, that's all.
HELENA. Frankly, my thoughts were elsewhere. Forgive me! I want to submit you to a little examination, but I'm embarrassed and don't know how to begin.
ASTROV. An examination?
HELENA. Yes, but quite an innocent one. Sit down. [They sit down] It's about a certain young girl I know. Let us discuss it like honest people, like friends, and then forget what has passed between us, shall we?
ASTROV. All right.
HELENA. It's about my step-daughter, Sonya. Do you like her?
ASTROV. Yes, I respect her.
HELENA. Do you like her -- as a woman?
ASTROV. [Slowly] No.
HELENA. One more word, and that will be the last. You haven't noticed anything?
ASTROV. No, nothing.
HELENA. [Taking his hand] You don't love her. I see that in your eyes. She is suffering. You must realise that, and not come here any more.