Plays by Aleksandr Nikolaevich Ostrovsky Part 16

EGoRUSHKA. With my uncle, with Lyubim KaRPYCH. On the second day of the holidays Uncle Lyubim KaRPYCH dined with us; at dinner he got drunk and began to play the fool; it was awfully funny. I always get the giggles. I couldn't stand it, and then I burst out laughing, and they were all looking at me. Uncle Gordey KaRPYCH took it as a great insult to himself and very bad manners, and he was furious with him and turned him out. Uncle Lyubim Karpych made a great row, and out of revenge went and stood with the beggars by the church door. Uncle Gordey Karpych said: "He has put me to shame," he said, "in the eyes of the whole town." And now he gets angry with everybody who comes near him, no matter who they are. [_Reads_] "With the intention of advancing toward our town."

MiTYA. [_Looking out of the window_] Here they come, I think. Yes, it's so.

Pelageya Egorovna, Lyubov Gordeyevna, and guests with them.

EGoRUSHKA. [_Concealing his story in his pocket_] I'll run up-stairs.

[_Goes out_.

SCENE II

MiTYA alone

MiTYA. Oh, Lord, what misery! Everybody in the streets is having a holiday, and everybody in the houses too, and you have to sit between four walls! I am a stranger to all, no relations, no friends!--And then besides!--O well!

I'd better get to work; perhaps this wretchedness will pa.s.s off. [_Seats himself at the desk and muses, then begins to sing_.

"Her beauty I cannot describe!

Dark eyebrows, with languis.h.i.+ng eyes."

Yes, with languis.h.i.+ng eyes. And yesterday when she came from ma.s.s, in her sable coat, and her little handkerchief on her head, like this--ah!--I really think such beauty was never seen before! [_Muses, then sings_.

"Where, O where was this beauty born!"

My work all goes out of my head! I'm always thinking of her! My heart is tormented with sorrow. O misery most miserable!

_Covers his face with his hands and sits silent. Enter_ PELAGeYA EGoROVNA, _dressed in winter clothes; she stops in the doorway._

SCENE III

MiTYA and PELAGeYA EGoROVNA

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA. Mitya, Mitya dear!

MiTYA. What do you want?

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA. Come up to us later on in the evening, my dear, and play with the girls. We're going to sing songs.

MiTYA. Thank you exceedingly, I shall make it my first duty.

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA. Why are you always sitting alone in the office? It's not very cheerful! You'll come, won't you? Gordey Karpych won't be at home.

MiTYA. Good, I shall come without fail.

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA. He's going off again, you see; he's going off there to that friend of his--what's his name?

MiTYA. To Afrikan Savvich?

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA. Yes, yes! He's quite gone on him! Lord forgive him!

MiTYA. Take a seat, Pelageya Egorovna. [_Fetches a chair_.

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA. Oh, I have no time. Well, yes, I'll sit down a bit.

[_Sits down_] Now just think, what a misfortune! Really, they've become such friends that it beats everything! Yes, that's what it's come to! And why? What's the use of it all? Tell me that, pray. Isn't Afrikan Savvich a coa.r.s.e, drunken fellow? Isn't he?

MiTYA. Perhaps Gordey Karpych has some business with Afrikan Savvich.

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA. What sort of business! He has no business at all. You see Afrikan Savvich is always drinking with that Englishman. He has an Englishman as director of his factory, and they drink together! But he's no fit company for my husband. But can you reason with him? Just think how proud he is! He says to me: "There isn't a soul here to speak to; all," he says, "are rabble, all, you see, are just so many peasants, and they live like peasants. But that man, you see, is from Moscow--lives mostly in Moscow--and he's rich." And whatever has happened to him? Well, you see, it was all of a sudden, my dear boy, all of a sudden! He used to have so much sense. Well, we lived, of course not luxuriously, but all the same pretty fairly decently; and then last year he went for a trip, and he caught it from some one. He caught it, he caught it, they have told me so--caught all these tricks. Now he doesn't care for any of our Russian ways. He keeps harping on this: "I want to be up to date, I want to be in the fas.h.i.+on.

Yes, yes! Put on a cap," he says! What an idea to get! Am I going to try to charm any one in my old age and make myself look lovely? Bah! You just try to do anything with him. He never drank before--really he didn't--but now he drinks with this Afrikan. It must be that drink has turned his brain [_points to her head_] and muddled him.... [_Silence_] I think now that the devil has got hold of him! Why can't he have some sense! If he were a young fellow! For a young fellow to dress up and all that is all right; but you see he's nearly sixty, my dear, nearly sixty! Really! "Your fas.h.i.+onable up-to-date things," says I, "change every day; our Russian things have lived from time immemorial! The old folks weren't any stupider than we."

But can you reason with him, my dear, with his violent character?

MiTYA. What is there to say? He's a harsh man.

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA. Lyubov is just at the right age now; we ought to be settling her, but he keeps dinning it in: "There's no one her equal, no!

no!" But there is! But he says there isn't. How hard all this is for a mother's heart.

MiTYA. Perhaps Gordey Karpych wishes to marry Lyubov Gordeyevna in Moscow.

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA. Who knows what he has in his mind? He looks like a wild beast, and never says a word, as if I were not a mother. Yes, truly, I never say anything to him; I don't dare; all you can do is to speak with some outsider about your grief, and weep, and relieve your heart; that's all. [_Rises_] You'll come, Mitya?

MiTYA. I'll come, ma'am.

GuSLIN _comes in_.

SCENE IV

The _same and_ GuSLIN

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA. Here's another fine lad! Come up-stairs to us, Yasha, and sing songs with the girls; you're good at that; and bring along your guitar.

GuSLIN. Thank you, ma'am: I don't think of that as work; I must say it's a pleasure.

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA. Well, good-by! I'm going to take a nap for half an hour.

GuSLIN _and_ MiTYA. Good-by.

PELAGeYA EGoROVNA _goes out_; MiTYA _seats himself dejectedly at the table_; GuSLIN _seats himself on the bed and takes up the guitar_.

SCENE V

MiTYA _and_ YaSHA GuSLIN