face. Our departure is fixed. One thing I must ask of you: don't
think too badly of me; I should like you to respect me.

ASTROFF. Ah! [With an impatient gesture] Stay, I implore you! Confess
that there is nothing for you to do in this world. You have no object
in life; there is nothing to occupy your attention, and sooner or later
your feelings must master you. It is inevitable. It would be better if
it happened not in Kharkoff or in Kursk, but here, in nature's lap.
It would then at least be poetical, even beautiful. Here you have the
forests, the houses half in ruins that Turgenieff writes of.

HELENA. How comical you are! I am angry with you and yet I shall always
remember you with pleasure. You are interesting and original. You and
I will never meet again, and so I shall tell you--why should I conceal
it?--that I am just a little in love with you. Come, one more last
pressure of our hands, and then let us part good friends. Let us not
bear each other any ill will.

ASTROFF. [Pressing her hand] Yes, go. [Thoughtfully] You seem to be
sincere and good, and yet there is something strangely disquieting about
all your personality. No sooner did you arrive here with your husband
than every one whom you found busy and actively creating something was
forced to drop his work and give himself up for the whole summer to
your husband's gout and yourself. You and he have infected us with your
idleness. I have been swept off my feet; I have not put my hand to
a thing for weeks, during which sickness has been running its course
unchecked among the people, and the peasants have been pasturing their
cattle in my woods and young plantations. Go where you will, you and
your husband will always carry destruction in your train. I am joking of
course, and yet I am strangely sure that had you stayed here we should
have been overtaken by the most immense desolation. I would have gone
to my ruin, and you--you would not have prospered. So go! E finita la
comedia!

HELENA. [Snatching a pencil off ASTROFF'S table, and hiding it with a
quick movement] I shall take this pencil for memory!

ASTROFF. How strange it is. We meet, and then suddenly it seems that
we must part forever. That is the way in this world. As long as we are
alone, before Uncle Vanya comes in with a bouquet--allow me--to kiss you
good-bye--may I? [He kisses her on the cheek] So! Splendid!

HELENA. I wish you every happiness. [She glances about her] For once
in my life, I