Arkadina.  You don’t understand him, Constantine.  He has a wonderfully noble personality.

TREPLIEFF.  Nevertheless, when he has been told that I wish to challenge him to a duel his nobility does not prevent him from playing the coward.  He is about to beat an ignominious retreat.

Arkadina.  What nonsense!  I have asked him myself to go.

TREPLIEFF.  A noble personality indeed!  Here we are almost quarrelling over him, and he is probably in the garden laughing at us at this very moment, or else enlightening Nina’s mind and trying to persuade her into thinking him a man of genius.

Arkadina.  You enjoy saying unpleasant things to me.  I have the greatest respect for that man, and I must ask you not to speak ill of him in my presence.

TREPLIEFF.  I have no respect for him at all.  You want me to think him a genius, as you do, but I refuse to lie:  his books make me sick.

Arkadina.  You envy him.  There is nothing left for people with no talent and mighty pretensions to do but to criticise those who are really 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.