NIA. He is clever. He can do everything. He can cure the sick, and
plant woods.

HELENA. It is not a question of medicine and woods, my dear, he is a man
of genius. Do you know what that means? It means he is brave, profound,
and of clear insight. He plants a tree and his mind travels a thousand
years into the future, and he sees visions of the happiness of the human
race. People like him are rare and should be loved. What if he does
drink and act roughly at times? A man of genius cannot be a saint in
Russia. There he lives, cut off from the world by cold and storm and
endless roads of bottomless mud, surrounded by a rough people who are
crushed by poverty and disease, his life one continuous struggle, with
never a day's respite; how can a man live like that for forty years and
keep himself sober and unspotted? [Kissing SONIA] I wish you happiness
with all my heart; you deserve it. [She gets up] As for me, I am a
worthless, futile woman. I have always been futile; in music, in love,
in my husband's house--in a word, in everything. When you come to think
of it, Sonia, I am really very, very unhappy. [Walks excitedly up and
down] Happiness can never exist for me in this world. Never. Why do you
laugh?

SONIA. [Laughing and covering her face with her hands] I am so happy, so
happy!

HELENA. I want to hear music. I might play a little.

SONIA. Oh, do, do! [She embraces her] I could not possibly go to sleep
now. Do play!

HELENA. Yes, I will. Your father is still awake. Music irritates him
when he is ill, but if he says I may, then I shall play a little. Go,
Sonia, and ask him.

SONIA. Very well.

[She goes out. The WATCHMAN'S rattle is heard in the garden.]

HELENA. It is long since I have heard music. And now, I shall sit and
play, and weep like a fool. [Speaking out of the window] Is that you
rattling out there, Ephim?

VOICE OF THE WATCHMAN. It is I.

HELENA. Don't make such a noise. Your master is ill.

VOICE OF THE WATCHMAN. I am going away this minute. [Whistles a tune.]

SONIA. [Comes back] He says, no.

The curtain falls.

ACT III

The drawing-room of SEREBRAKOFF'S house. There are three doors: one to
the right, one to the left, and one in the centre of the room. VOITSKI
and SONIA are sitting down. HELENA is walking up and down, absorbed in
thought.

VOITSKI. We were asked by the professor to be here at one o'clock.
[Looks at his watch] It is now a quarter to one. It seems he has some
co