SCENE IV
KRASNÓV, TATYÁNA, LUKÉRYA, ARKHÍP, and AFÓNYA
LUKÉRYA. [In a low voice to ARKHÍP] Lev Rodionych is here.
ARKHÍP. Lev, you haven't had any dinner to-day.
KRASNÓV. I had no time.
TATYÁNA. If you wish, we'll serve you now.
KRASNÓV. [Sitting down to the table] Certainly. I can't get along without eating!
TATYÁNA. Set the table, sister! [Goes to the kitchen. LUKÉRYA sets the table.
ARKHÍP. Lev, are you going back to the shop?
KRASNÓV. No, I'm all through there.
ARKHÍP. Will you stay at home?
KRASNÓV. I'll be here for an hour, then I have to go across the river to make a collection.
TATYÁNA brings a plate of cabbage soup, puts it on the table, and goes out with LUKÉRYA. KRASNÓV, after eating several spoonfuls, is lost in thought.
ARKHÍP. Lev! I can't see you, but it seems as if you weren't happy.
KRASNÓV. What's there to be happy about?
ARKHÍP. Why are you so sad? What's your sorrow?
KRASNÓV. It's my sorrow, grandfather, mine. My very own. It's for me to judge of it.
ARKHÍP. Well, as you choose! It's your sorrow, and for you to bear. [Pause] If I say anything, you know I'm not your enemy; if you scold me, there's no harm in it. I've lived longer than you, and I've seen more sorrow; maybe what I say will be good for you.
KRASNÓV. It isn't the kind of affair, grandfather, that needs advice! You can't tell me anything.
ARKHÍP. You're foolish, foolish! How do you know? Are you wiser than the rest of us?
KRASNÓV. Please stop. I can't discuss with you. What do you want? Strikes the spoon against the bowl angrily. LUKÉRYA enters, places a bowl of mush on the table, and goes out.
ARKHÍP. Your wife is wiser than you, really wiser.
KRASNÓV. If she were wise she'd obey her husband.
ARKHÍP. Not necessarily! One can't be on one's guard every minute! Don't you hold anger for every little thing. One wrong—is no wrong; and two wrongs—a half wrong; it takes three wrongs to make a whole wrong.
KRASNÓV. What wrongs! All wrongs aren't the same. For some wrongs strangling would be mild.
ARKHÍP. What makes you so fierce? Nowadays, they don't hang a man even for highway robbery.
KRASNÓV. I can't even eat my food.
ARKHÍP. You have a terrible temper! I began to talk about your wife; that wasn't just for the sake of saying something. She came to her senses before you did. [KRASNÓV listens] "Grandfather Arkhíp," says she, "put in a word for me to my husband! I love him," says she, "but I'm afraid of his temper. He seems to think me bad without any reason. I wouldn't exchange him for any one," says she. "I'd try to please him in every way, just so he forgives me and doesn't get angry."
KRASNÓV. Is that true?
ARKHÍP. Have you gone absolutely crazy? Do you think I'd turn liar in my old age? She'd have told you herself; she wants to bow down to you but, you see, she's ashamed, and then she's afraid.
KRASNÓV. [Rising] Grandfather Arkhíp, understand me! You know how I love her, there's no need telling! Until this happened, we lived together very comfortably; you all saw how I simply doted on her. Now that this gentleman has come I see that he talks in too free and easy a way with her; and that made me angry. Would you believe me, I didn't know what I was doing or saying. When she went to him, I waited half an hour—she didn't return; I waited an hour—she didn't return; I became furious; my very teeth began to chatter. Here I was imagining all sorts of things! Maybe I'm doing her wrong, am unjust to her; maybe she meant nothing; but what was there to do? I'm consumed with a fire, absolutely consumed, I wronged her, I admit; but was it easy for me? If you'd told me that she'd just died—I don't know what I'd do with myself, but it would be easier; then no one could take her from me. [Weeps] Some want money or reputation, but I need nothing except her love. Give me the choice: Here, Krasnóv, you can have gold-mines and royal castles, if you'll only give up your wife; or here, you can have a roofless mud hut, all sorts of hard work, but you may live with your wife. I won't utter a sound. I'll carry water on my back, just to be with her always. So listen, grandfather! Is it strange that with my hot temper I hurt her? If there's no love, then there's no anger. But you tell me that she herself wants to bow down to me! Such happiness can't come to me even in a dream. Certainly that is a load off my shoulders. It seems as though I'd just been born into the world! Thank you, grandfather Arkhíp! I was a dead man and you brought me to life again! I had such thoughts in my head that I can't make up for them by praying all my life. The devil was surely near me. Not only did he whisper in my ear, but—it's a sin to say it—[in a low voice] he might have made me raise my arm.
ARKHÍP. What! At whom?
KRASNÓV. Well, what's past is past. God preserve me from such torment in the future! I wouldn't wish such for my enemy.
ARKHÍP. You'd better calm your heart!
KRASNÓV. Ah, grandfather! I'd be glad to, but one can't restrain oneself. All at once your eyes become clouded, your head whirls, it seems as if some one were gripping your heart with his hand and you can think only of misfortune and sin. You walk about as if half crazed, and see nothing all around you. But now when your anger has calmed down, then you're at ease, as if nothing had happened. [LUKÉRYA comes in and takes the bowl from the table] Where's Tatyána Danílovna?
LUKÉRYA. She's there, in the kitchen.
KRASNÓV. Why in the kitchen? What is she doing there? The kitchen is no place for her to sit in! Call her in here.
LUKÉRYA goes out.
AFÓNYA. [In a low voice to ARKHÍP] Grandfather, will she bow down to brother's feet or not? If not, then I'll leave.
ARKHÍP. As they please, that's not our business!
Enter TATYÁNA and LUKÉRYA.