d--and what is more, I worked for ten years
like an ox, and paid off the debt.

SEREBRAKOFF. I regret ever having started this conversation.

VOITSKI. Thanks entirely to my own personal efforts, the place is
entirely clear of debts, and now, when I have grown old, you want to
throw me out, neck and crop!

SEREBRAKOFF. I can't imagine what you are driving at.

VOITSKI. For twenty-five years I have managed this place, and have sent
you the returns from it like the most honest of servants, and you have
never given me one single word of thanks for my work, not one--neither
in my youth nor now. You allowed me a meagre salary of five hundred
roubles a year, a beggar's pittance, and have never even thought of
adding a rouble to it.

SEREBRAKOFF. What did I know about such things, Ivan? I am not a
practical man and don't understand them. You might have helped yourself
to all you wanted.

VOITSKI. Yes, why did I not steal? Don't you all despise me for not
stealing, when it would have been only justice? And I should not now
have been a beggar!

MME. VOITSKAYA. [Sternly] Jean!

TELEGIN. [Agitated] Vanya, old man, don't talk in that way. Why spoil
such pleasant relations? [He embraces him] Do stop!

VOITSKI. For twenty-five years I have been sitting here with my mother
like a mole in a burrow. Our every thought and hope was yours and yours
only. By day we talked with pride of you and your work, and spoke your
name with veneration; our nights we wasted reading the books and papers
which my soul now loathes.

TELEGIN. Don't, Vanya, don't. I can't stand it.

SEREBRAKOFF. [Wrathfully] What under heaven do you want, anyway?

VOITSKI. We used to think of you as almost superhuman, but now the
scales have fallen from my eyes and I see you as you are! You write on
art without knowing anything about it. Those books of yours which I used
to admire are not worth one copper kopeck. You are a hoax!

SEREBRAKOFF. Can't any one make him stop? I am going!

HELENA. Ivan, I command you to stop this instant! Do you hear me?

VOITSKI. I refuse! [SEREBRAKOFF tries to get out of the room, but
VOITSKI bars the door] Wait! I have not done yet! You have wrecked my
life. I have never lived. My best years have gone for nothing, have been
ruined, thanks to you. You are my most bitter enemy!

TELEGIN. I can't stand it; I can't stand it. I am going. [He goes out in
great excitement.]

SEREBRAKOFF. But what do you want? What earthly right hav