PRINCESS. _Quelle energie! Je l'admire._[26]

[26] What energy, I do admire her.

PETER SEMYoNOVICH. _Oh, pour ceci, ce n'est pas ca qui nous manque._[27]

[Takes out a cigar] But I will go and have a smoke and take a stroll through the park with the dogs till the young people are up. [Exit].

[27] Oh, as far as that goes, we are not lacking.

PRINCESS. I don't know, dear Mary Ivanovna, whether I am right, but it seems to me that you take it all too much to heart. I understand him. He is in a very exalted state of mind. Well, even supposing he does give to the poor? Don't we anyway think too much about ourselves?

MARY IVaNOVNA. Yes, if that were all, but you don't know him; nor all he is after. It is not simply helping the poor, but a complete revolution, the destruction of everything.

PRINCESS. I do not wish to intrude into your family life, but if you will allow me ...

MARY IVaNOVNA. Not at all--I look upon you as one of the family--especially now.

PRINCESS. I should advise you to put your demands to him openly and frankly, and to come to an agreement as to the limits ...

MARY IVaNOVNA [excitedly] There are no limits! He wants to give away everything. He wishes me now, at my age, to become a cook and a washerwoman.

PRINCESS. No, is it possible! That is extraordinary.

MARY IVaNOVNA [takes a letter out of her pocket] We are by ourselves and I am glad to tell you all about it. He wrote me this letter yesterday. I will read it to you.

PRINCESS. What? He lives in the same house with you, and writes you letters? How strange!

MARY IVaNOVNA. No, I understand him there. He gets so excited when he speaks. I have for some time past felt anxious about his health.

PRINCESS. What did he write?

MARY IVaNOVNA. This [reading] "You reproach me for upsetting our former way of life, and for not giving you anything new in exchange, and not saying how I should like to arrange our family affairs. When we begin to discuss it we both get excited, and that's why I am writing to you. I have often told you already why I cannot continue to live as we have been doing; and I cannot, in a letter, show you why that is so, nor why we must live in accord to Christ's teaching. You can do one of two things: either believe in the truth and voluntarily go with me, or believe in me and trusting yourself entirely to me--follow me." [Stops reading] I can do neither the one nor the other. I do not consider it necessary to live as he wishes us to. I have to consider the children, and I cannot rely on him. [Reads] "My plan is this: We shall give our land to the peasants, retaining only 135 acres besides the orchards and kitchen-garden and the meadow by the river. We will try to work ourselves, but will not force one another, nor the children. What we keep should still bring us in about 50 a year."

PRINCESS. Live on 50 a year--with seven children! Is it possible!

MARY IVaNOVNA. Well, here follows his whole plan: to give up the house and have it turned into a school, and ourselves to live in the gardener's two-roomed cottage.

PRINCESS. Yes, now I begin to see that there is something abnormal about it. What did you answer?

MARY IVaNOVNA. I told him I couldn't; that were I alone I would follow him anywhere, but I have the children.... Only think! I am still nursing little Nicholas. I tell him we can't break up everything like that.

After all, was that what I agreed to when I married? And now I am no longer young or strong. Think what it has meant to bear and nurse nine children.

PRINCESS. I never dreamed that things had gone so far.

MARY IVaNOVNA. That is how things are and I don't know what will happen. Yesterday he excused the Dmitrovka peasants their rent; and he wants to give the land to them altogether.

PRINCESS. I do not think you should allow it. It is your duty to protect your children. If he cannot deal with the estate, let him hand it over to you.

MARY IVaNOVNA. But I don't want that.

PRINCESS. You ought to take it for the children's sake. Let him transfer the property to you.

MARY IVaNOVNA. My sister Alexandra told him so; but he says he has no right to do it; and that the land belongs to those who work it, and that it is his duty to give it to the peasants.

PRINCESS. Yes, now I see that the matter is far more serious than I thought.

MARY IVaNOVNA. And the Priest! The Priest takes his side, too.

PRINCESS. Yes, I noticed that yesterday.

MARY IVaNOVNA. That's why my sister has gone to Moscow. She wanted to talk things over with a lawyer, but chiefly she went to fetch Father Gerasim that he may bring his influence to bear.

PRINCESS. Yes, I do not think that Christianity calls upon us to ruin our families.

MARY IVaNOVNA. But he will not believe even Father Gerasim. He is so firm; and when he talks, you know, I can't answer him. That's what is so terrible, that it seems to me he is right.

PRINCESS. That is because you love him.

MARY IVaNOVNA. I don't know, but it's terrible, and everything remains unsettled--and that is Christianity!

Enter Nurse.

NURSE. Will you please come. Little Nicholas has woke up and is crying for you.

MARY IVaNOVNA. Directly! When I am excited he gets stomach ache. Coming, coming!

Nicholas Ivanovich enters by another door, with a paper in his hand.

NICHOLAS IVaNOVICH. No, this is impossible!

MARY IVaNOVNA. What has happened?

NICHOLAS IVaNOVICH. Why, Peter is to be imprisoned on account of some wretched pine-trees of ours.

MARY IVaNOVNA. How's that?

NICHOLAS IVaNOVICH. Quite simply! He cut it down, and they informed the Justice of Peace, and he has sentenced him to three months'

imprisonment. His wife has come about it.

MARY IVaNOVNA. Well, and can't anything be done?

NICHOLAS IVaNOVICH. Not now. The only way is not to possess any forest.

And I will not possess any. What is one to do? I shall, however, go and see whether what we have done can be remedied. [Goes out on to the verandah and meets Boris and Lyuba].

LYuBA. Good morning, papa [kisses him], where are you going?

NICHOLAS IVaNOVICH. I have just returned from the village and am going back again. They are just dragging a hungry man to prison because he ...

LYuBA. I suppose it's Peter?