Complete Works of Anton Chekhov

SCENE VI.

SOFYA EGOROVNA AND

PLATONOV.

PLATONOV (comes out of the house).

SOFYA EGOROVNA. There he comes! He’s glancing round, looking for someone! Whom is he seeking?

From his walk I can tell whom he wants to find! It is mean of him to give me no peace.

PLATONOV. I feel hot! It would have been better if I had kept off drink... (Seeing Sofya Egorovna.)

You here, Sofya Egorovna? All alone? (Laughs.)

SOFYA EGOROVNA. Yes.

PLATONOV. Are you avoiding mortals?

SOFYA EGOROVNA. [I don’t avoid people, Mikhail Vassilyevitch! ] It’s not necessary for me to avoid people. I don’t find them unpleasant, and they don’t worry me.

PLATONOV. Yes? (Sits down at her side.) You’ll allow me? (Pause.) If you’re not avoiding people, Sofya Egorovna, why are you avoiding me? Why? Allow me to chat with you! I am glad to have the chance at last of speaking with you. You are avoiding me. What does it mean?

SOFYA EGOROVNA. I never even thought of avoiding you! Where did you get that idea?

PLATONOV. At first you seemed predisposed towards me, and now you don’t even seem to want to see me! When I enter a room you go out of it. When I go into the garden, again you go out of it. I begin talking to you, and you show no inclination to go on... Our relations leave me wholly perplexed... Am I to blame? Am I repugnant to you? [You appear to be running away from me as if from the plague. How, do you suppose, it makes me feel?] (He rises.) Frankly, I don’t feel any guilt. Do try now to save me from this stupid position! I can’t stand it any longer! SOFYA EGOROVNA. I admit I’ve been avoiding you a little. ... If I’d known that it caused you any distress, I would have acted differently.

PLATONOV. SO you are avoiding me! (He sits down.) You admit it? But why . . . what’s the reason? SOFYA EGOROVNA. Don’t shout, that is . . . don’t speak so loudly! I hope you’re not reprimanding me. I don’t like people to shout at me. I don’t strictly avoid you. I only avoid conversations with you. As far as I know, you’re a good man... Everyone loves and respects you here. Some even consider you a superior being, and deem it a privilege to exchange a word with you...

PLATONOV. H’m . . .

SOFYA EGOROVNA. When I arrived here ... it was after our first conversation ... I eagerly joined your circle of listeners. But somehow, Mikhail Vas- silyevitch, I could not go on with it. ... I soon began to think you almost unbearable... Forgive me, if the word sounds harsh to you... You talked to me nearly every day, how once upon a time you had loved me, and how I had loved you, and so forth... The student loved the little girl, the little girl loved the student... It’s an old story and rather ordinary. There’s little need to attach such significance to it... But that’s beside the point... The point is, when you spoke about the past with me, you did it as if you were asking for something, as if in that past you had missed something which you want now... Every time you spoke the tone of your voice was oppressive, but it was always the same. You always seemed to hint of some sort of obligation under which I was bound to you by reason of our mutual past... And you seemed to attach such significance to it... To speak frankly, you want to exceed the proprieties of friendship! You look so strangely, you are angry, you shout, you seize my hand, you follow me around. ... As if you were spying! What’s the object of it all? ... In a word, you give me no peace... Why this surveillance? What am I to you? Really, one might think that you’re waiting for some convenient moment, which for some reason is necessary to you... (Pause.)

PLATONOV. IS that all? (Rises.) Merci for your frankness! (He goes toward the door.) SOFYA EGOROVNA. Are you angry? (She rises.) Don’t go yet, Mikhail Vassilyevitch! And don’t take offence! I didn’t want to . . .

PLATONOV (pausing). Oh you! I am to conclude not that you’re bored with me, but that you’re afraid... You are afraid, Sofya Egorovna? (He approaches her.)

SOFYA EGOROVNA. Stop it, Platonov! You’re lying! I am not afraid!

PLATONOV. Where’s your character, where the strength of a healthy mentality, if every banal man you happen to meet seems dangerous for the well- being of your Sergey Pavlovitch? I came here every day and chatted with you because I considered you a sensible understanding woman! What a deep depravity! ... In any case ... I am to blame, I was tempted. ... I had no right to tell you all this... Forgive me for a shameful prank. SOFYA EGOROVNA. No one gave you the right to say such things! Just because you’re listened to, it does not follow that you have the right to say anything that comes to your tongue! Leave me!

PLATONOV (laughing). So you’re being followed about! You’re being sought for! Your hands are being seized! Someone wants to take you, poor thing, from your husband! Platonov, that odd fellow Platonov, is in love with you! What happiness! What bliss! . . . Ridiculous! Hardly the sort of thing to be expected of an intelligent woman! (He goes into the house.)

SOFYA EGOROVNA. You’re insolent, Platonov! You’re out of your wits! (She follows him, but stops near the door.) It’s terrible! What made him say all this? He wanted to daze me... No, I won’t bear it... I’ll go in and tell him . . . (Goes into the house.)

(OSSIP comes out of the summer-house.)