Delphi Complete Works of Anton Chekhov

SCENE I .

Enter SOFYA EGOROVNA and KATYA.

[KATYA. I can’t find him anywhere!

SOFYA EGOROVNA. Where did you look for him?

KATYA. Everywhere. I haven’t overlooked a single place... Not a nook in the school that I haven’t looked into. The doors and the windows are wide open, but he’s not to be seen anywhere. I looked even in the cellar. A carpenter was sitting near the cellar, and I asked him . . . but he had seen nothing of him. Then I thought I’d have a look in the woods. . . .

SOFYA EGOROVNA. Did you look in at the priest’s?

KATYA. Yes, and the reverend father said he hadn’t seen Mikhail Vassilyitch in a week. ... I looked in at the deacon’s too... And I saw Aleksey Makaritch, the copying clerk, and he knows no more than the rest... Then I looked and looked for him in the wood. . . .]

SOFYA EGOROVNA. Be calm! Talk sense!

KATYA. Something wicked is happening, Madam! The doors are all open, everything in the room is turned topsy-turvy... The door’s broken from

its hinges... Something awful’s happened! No wonder one of our hens crowed like a cock! ,

SOFYA EGOROVNA. What do you think could have happened?

KATYA. I don’t know what to think, Madam. I only know, something’s happened... Either Mikhail Vassilyitch left altogether, or else he’s put an end to himself. He’s very hot-headed!

SOFYA EGOROVNA. Have you been to the village?

KATYA. Yes... He wasn’t there either. ... I walked about for four hours...

SOFYA EGOROVNA (.sitting down). What’s to be done? What’s to be done? {Pause.) Are you sure that he’s nowhere to be found? Are you sure?

KATYA. I don’t know, Madam... Something awful’s happened... Something in my heart tells me! Why don’t you chuck it all, Madam! After all, it’s a sin! (Weeps.) I’m sorry for the master, Sergey Pavlovitch... He was such a handsome man, and look at him now! He’s walking about like one out of his wits... I’m sorry for him... He used to be such a cheery man, and now he looks like death itself... Chuck it, Madam!

SOFYA EGOROVNA. Chuck what?

KATYA. Love. What sense is there in it? It only makes for scandal. I’m sorry for you too. You’ve changed these last days. You’ve grown thin, you neither eat nor drink, you don’t sleep, and you do nothing but cough!

SOFYA EGOROVNA. GO, Katya! Try once more. Maybe, he’s returned to the school by now.

KATYA. At once. (Pause.) You’d better lie down.

SOFYA EGOROVNA. Go, Katya, and try again!

KATYA (desperately). Where is there left for me to go?

SOFYA EGOROVNA. I must go to bed. I haven’t slept all night. Don’t shout so! Go away!

KATYA. Very well. You’re using yourself up . . . all for nothing! You ought to go to bed and have some rest, Madam! (Goes.)