AFONYA.  Heavens!  I haven’t any strength!  How is one to live in such a world?  This is a punishment for our sins!  Left her husband for a stranger!  She was sitting in a corner starving; we took care of her, gave her fine clothes bought with hard-earned money!  Brother denies himself, denies his family, and gives her cash to buy rags, and now she and a stranger are cursing us for the shelter we gave her.  It makes me sick!  Why don’t I die!  I’m shedding tears of blood.  We’ve warmed a viper in our bosom. [Leans against the fence] I’ll wait, I’ll wait.  I’ll tell her everything, everything that’s seething in my heart.

BABAYEV and TATYANA come out of the gate; AFONYA hides behind a corner.

SCENE III

AFONYA, BABAYEV, and TATYANA

BABAYEV.  What are you afraid of?  There’s not a soul on the street.  Why are you in such a hurry?  It isn’t half an hour since you came.

TATYANA.  No, no!  Somehow I feel uneasy.

BABAYEV.  I don’t understand why you are so afraid.  Well, your husband will scold and that’s all.

TATYANA.  I was late the time before; how terribly he acted; I thought he’d kill me.  He makes me afraid, frightfully afraid! [Silence] Shall you return soon?

BABAYEV.  In a week, in ten days at most.

TATYANA.  Oh, how has this come about!  Oh, if we had what we wanted:  you’d go to the country—­and I’d go there too; you’d go to St. Petersburg—­and I’d follow you.

BABAYEV.  I asked you to come with me.

TATYANA.  It’s all right for you.  You’re a free man, while I’m no better than a captive.  That’s my trouble.  I’ve thought more than once how I could run away to you.

BABAYEV.  That’s good.

TATYANA.  Just think how unfortunate my life is:  in order to have a little pleasure I have to deceive my husband.  It’s all deceit and deceit!  But what’s the use of deceiving?  It disgusts me; it’s not in my character.  If my husband guessed that I didn’t love him, then he’d kill me with scolding and reproaches.  I very well understand that I can’t be a real wife to him, and that I’m not wanted by his family; and they’d rather I were anywhere else; but who can I explain that to, who’d understand it!  Just see how rough and stern they are, and I’m not used to sternness.  What a life, when there’s no freedom!

BABAYEV.  Tanya, I’ll tell you what to do!  Tell him outright that you don’t want to live with him.  You and your sister rent a house, and I’ll send you the money.

TATYANA.  That’s impossible.  Not to be thought of!  Do you think he’d let me go?  He doesn’t care if I die—­so long as I’m with him—­before his eyes.  It would be better for me to leave quietly.

BABAYEV.  Very well, leave quietly.

TATYANA.  Really, I don’t know.  We’re all brave when it’s a matter of words, but when it comes to action, then you lose your reason, especially such as I. Do as you wish.  I’ll do as you advise me.  If you love me, you won’t want to cause my ruin.