SONIA. Nurse!

MARINA. You are trembling all over, as if you were freezing. There,
there, little orphan baby, God is merciful. A little linden-tea, and it
will all pass away. Don't cry, my sweetest. [Looking angrily at the door
in the centre of the room] See, the geese have all gone now. The devil
take them!

A shot is heard. HELENA screams behind the scenes. SONIA shudders.

MARINA. Bang! What's that?

SEREBRAKOFF. [Comes in reeling with terror] Hold him! hold him! He has
gone mad!

HELENA and VOITSKI are seen struggling in the doorway.

HELENA. [Trying to wrest the revolver from him] Give it to me; give it
to me, I tell you!

VOITSKI. Let me go, Helena, let me go! [He frees himself and rushes in,
looking everywhere for SEREBRAKOFF] Where is he? Ah, there he is! [He
shoots at him. A pause] I didn't get him? I missed again? [Furiously]
Damnation! Damnation! To hell with him!

He flings the revolver on the floor, and drops helpless into a chair.
SEREBRAKOFF stands as if stupefied. HELENA leans against the wall,
almost fainting.

HELENA. Take me away! Take me away! I can't stay here--I can't!

VOITSKI. [In despair] Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?

SONIA. [Softly] Oh, nurse, nurse!

The curtain falls.

ACT IV

VOITSKI'S bedroom, which is also his office. A table stands near
the window; on it are ledgers, letter scales, and papers of every
description. Near by stands a smaller table belonging to ASTROFF, with
his paints and drawing materials. On the wall hangs a cage containing a
starling. There is also a map of Africa on the wall, obviously of no use
to anybody. There is a large sofa covered with buckram. A door to the
left leads into an inner room; one to the right leads into the front
hall, and before this door lies a mat for the peasants with their muddy
boots to stand on. It is an autumn evening. The silence is profound.
TELEGIN and MARINA are sitting facing one another, winding wool.

TELEGIN. Be quick, Marina, or we shall be called away to say good-bye
before you have finished. The carriage has already been ordered.

MARINA. [Trying to wind more quickly] I am a little tired.

TELEGIN. They are going to Kharkoff to live.

MARINA. They do well to go.

TELEGIN. They have been frightened. The professor's wife won't stay here
an hour longer. "If we are going at all, let's be off," says she, "we
shall go to Kharkoff and look about us, and then we can send for our
things." They are trav