eally
gifted. I hope you enjoy the consolation it brings.

TREPLIEFF. [With irony] Those who are really gifted, indeed! [Angrily] I
am cleverer than any of you, if it comes to that! [He tears the bandage
off his head] You are the slaves of convention, you have seized the
upper hand and now lay down as law everything that you do; all else you
strangle and trample on. I refuse to accept your point of view, yours
and his, I refuse!

ARKADINA. That is the talk of a decadent.

TREPLIEFF. Go back to your beloved stage and act the miserable
ditch-water plays you so much admire!

ARKADINA. I never acted in a play like that in my life. You couldn't
write even the trashiest music-hall farce, you idle good-for-nothing!

TREPLIEFF. Miser!

ARKADINA. Rag-bag!

TREPLIEFF sits down and begins to cry softly.

ARKADINA. [Walking up and down in great excitement] Don't cry! You
mustn't cry! [She bursts into tears] You really mustn't. [She kisses his
forehead, his cheeks, his head] My darling child, forgive me. Forgive
your wicked mother.

TREPLIEFF. [Embracing her] Oh, if you could only know what it is to have
lost everything under heaven! She does not love me. I see I shall never
be able to write. Every hope has deserted me.

ARKADINA. Don't despair. This will all pass. He is going away to-day,
and she will love you once more. [She wipes away his tears] Stop crying.
We have made peace again.

TREPLIEFF. [Kissing her hand] Yes, mother.

ARKADINA. [Tenderly] Make your peace with him, too. Don't fight with
him. You surely won't fight?

TREPLIEFF. I won't, but you must not insist on my seeing him again,
mother, I couldn't stand it. [TRIGORIN comes in] There he is; I am
going. [He quickly puts the medicines away in the cupboard] The doctor
will attend to my head.

TRIGORIN. [Looking through the pages of a book] Page 121, lines 11 and
12; here it is. [He reads] "If at any time you should have need of my
life, come and take it."

TREPLIEFF picks up the bandage off the floor and goes out.

ARKADINA. [Looking at her watch] The carriage will soon be here.

TRIGORIN. [To himself] If at any time you should have need of my life,
come and take it.

ARKADINA. I hope your things are all packed.

TRIGORIN. [Impatiently] Yes, yes. [In deep thought] Why do I hear a note
of sadness that wrings my heart in this cry of a pure soul? If at any
time you should have need of my life, come and take it. [To ARKADINA]
Let us stay here one mo