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ACT III - Uncle Vanya
| | Page 21 of 33 | | |
ASTROFF. Tell me, tell me, where can we meet to-morrow? [He puts his arm around her] Don't you see that we must meet, that it is inevitable?
He kisses her. VOITSKI comes in carrying a bunch of roses, and stops in the doorway.
HELENA. [Without seeing VOITSKI] Have
pity! Leave me, [lays her head on ASTROFF'S shoulder] Don't!
[She tries to break away from him.]
ASTROFF. [Holding her by the waist] Be in the forest tomorrow at two o'clock. Will you? Will you?
HELENA. [Sees VOITSKI] Let me go! [Goes to the window deeply embarrassed] This is appalling!
VOITSKI. [Throws the flowers on a chair, and speaks in great excitement, wiping his face with his handkerchief] Nothing--yes, yes, nothing.
ASTROFF. The weather is fine to-day, my dear Ivan; the morning was overcast and looked like rain, but now the sun is shining again. Honestly, we have had a very fine autumn, and the wheat is looking fairly well. [Puts his map back into the portfolio] But the days are growing short.
HELENA. [Goes quickly up to VOITSKI] You must do your best; you must use all your power to get my husband and myself away from here to-day! Do you hear? I say, this very day!
VOITSKI. [Wiping his face] Oh! Ah! Oh! All right! I--Helena, I saw everything!
HELENA. [In great agitation] Do you hear me? I must leave here this very day!
SEREBRAKOFF, SONIA, MARINA, and TELEGIN come in.
TELEGIN. I am not very well myself, your Excellency. I have been limping for two days, and my head--
SEREBRAKOFF. Where are the others? I hate this house. It is a regular labyrinth. Every one is always scattered through the twenty-six enormous rooms; one never can find a soul. [Rings] Ask my wife and Madame Voitskaya to come here!
HELENA. I am here already.
SEREBRAKOFF. Please, all of you, sit down.
SONIA. [Goes up to HELENA and asks anxiously] What did he say?
HELENA. I'll tell you later.
SONIA. You are moved. [looking quickly and inquiringly into her face] I understand; he said he would not come here any more. [A pause] Tell me, did he?
HELENA nods.
SEREBRAKOFF. [To TELEGIN] One can, after all, become reconciled to being an invalid, but not to this country life. The ways of it stick in my throat and I feel exactly as if I had been whirled off the earth and landed on a strange planet. Please be seated, ladies and gentlemen. Sonia! [SONIA does not hear. She is standing with her head bowed sadly forward on her breast] Sonia! [A pause] She does not hear me. [To MARINA] Sit down too, nurse. [MARINA sits down and begins to knit her stocking] I crave your indulgence, ladies and gentlemen; hang your ears, if I may say so, on the peg of attention. [He laughs.]
VOITSKI. [Agitated] Perhaps you do not need me--may I be excused?
SEREBRAKOFF. No, you are needed now more than any one.
VOITSKI. What is it you want of me? 
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