Act II

The dining-room of SEREBRAKOFF'S house. It is night. The tapping of the WATCHMAN'S rattle is heard in the garden. SEREBRAKOFF is dozing in an arm-chair by an open window and HELENA is sitting beside him, also half asleep.

SEREBRAKOFF
[Rousing himself] Who is here? Is it you, Sonia?

HELENA
It is I.

SEREBRAKOFF
Oh, it is you, Nelly. This pain is intolerable.

HELENA
Your shawl has slipped down. [She wraps up his legs in the shawl] Let me shut the window.

SEREBRAKOFF
No, leave it open; I am suffocating. I dreamt just now that my left leg belonged to some one else, and it hurt so that I woke. I don't believe this is gout, it is more like rheumatism. What time is it?

HELENA
Half past twelve. [A pause.]

SEREBRAKOFF
I want you to look for Batushka's works in the library to-morrow. I think we have him.

HELENA
What is that?

SEREBRAKOFF
Look for Batushka to-morrow morning; we used to have him, I remember. Why do I find it so hard to breathe?

HELENA
You are tired; this is the second night you have had no sleep.

SEREBRAKOFF
They say that Turgenieff got angina of the heart from gout. I am afraid I am getting angina too. Oh, damn this horrible, accursed old age! Ever since I have been old I have been hateful to myself, and I am sure, hateful to you all as well.

HELENA
You speak as if we were to blame for your being old.

SEREBRAKOFF
I am more hateful to you than to any one.

HELENA gets up and walks away from him, sitting down at a distance.

SEREBRAKOFF
You are quite right, of course. I am not an idiot; I can understand you. You are young and healthy and beautiful, and longing for life, and I am an old dotard, almost a dead man already. Don't I know it? Of course I see that it is foolish for me to live so long, but wait! I shall soon set you all free. My life cannot drag on much longer.

HELENA
You are overtaxing my powers of endurance. Be quiet, for God's sake!

SEREBRAKOFF
It appears that, thanks to me, everybody's power of endurance is being overtaxed; everybody is miserable, only I am blissfully triumphant. Oh, yes, of course!

HELENA
Be quiet! You are torturing me.

SEREBRAKOFF
I torture everybody. Of course.

HELENA
[Weeping] This is unbearable! Tell me, what is it you want me to do?

SEREBRAKOFF
Nothing.

HELENA
Then be quiet, please.

SEREBRAKOFF
It is funny that everybody listens to Ivan and his old idiot of a mother, but the moment I open my lips you all begin to feel ill-treated. You can't even stand the sound of my voice. Even if I am hateful, even if I am a selfish tyrant, haven't I the right to be one at my age? Haven't I deserved it? Haven't I, I ask you, the right to be