so gently.

ARKADINA goes to the cupboard and takes out a box of bandages and a
bottle of iodoform.

ARKADINA. The doctor is late.

TREPLIEFF. Yes, he promised to be here at nine, and now it is noon
already.

ARKADINA. Sit down. [She takes the bandage off his head] You look as if
you had a turban on. A stranger that was in the kitchen yesterday asked
to what nationality you belonged. Your wound is almost healed. [She
kisses his head] You won't be up to any more of these silly tricks
again, will you, when I am gone?

TREPLIEFF. No, mother. I did that in a moment of insane despair, when I
had lost all control over myself. It will never happen again. [He kisses
her hand] Your touch is golden. I remember when you were still acting at
the State Theatre, long ago, when I was still a little chap, there was a
fight one day in our court, and a poor washerwoman was almost beaten to
death. She was picked up unconscious, and you nursed her till she was
well, and bathed her children in the washtubs. Have you forgotten it?

ARKADINA. Yes, entirely. [She puts on a new bandage.]

TREPLIEFF. Two ballet dancers lived in the same house, and they used to
come and drink coffee with you.

ARKADINA. I remember that.

TREPLIEFF. They were very pious. [A pause] I love you again, these last
few days, as tenderly and trustingly as I did as a child. I have no one
left me now but you. Why, why do you let yourself be controlled by that
man?

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 r