to say anything. Oh, how lovely you are -- what hands! [He kisses her hands.]
HELENA. Enough of this! [She frees her hands] Leave the room! You've forgotten yourself.
ASTROV. Tell me, tell me, where can we meet tomorrow? [He puts his arm around her waist] Don't you see that we must meet, that it's inevitable?
He kisses her. VOYNITSKY comes in carrying a bunch of roses, and stops in the doorway.
HELENA. [Without seeing VOYNITSKY] Have pity! Leave me alone! [lays her head on ASTROV'S chest] No! [She tries to break away from him.]
ASTROV. [Holding her by the waist] Be in the forest tomorrow at two o'clock. Will you? Will you?
HELENA. [Sees VOYNITSKY] Let me go! [Goes to the window deeply embarrassed] This is appalling!
VOYNITSKY. [Throws the roses on a chair, and speaks in great excitement, wiping his face and neck with his handkerchief] Nothing -- yes, yes, nothing.
ASTROV. [Inwardly upset] The weather is fine today, my dear Ivan; the morning was overcast and looked like rain, but now the sun is shining again. Honestly, we've had a very fine autumn, and the wheat is looking fairly well. [Puts his map back into the portfolio] But the days are growing short. [Goes out]
HELENA. [Goes quickly up to VOYNITSKY] You must do your best; you must use all your power to get my husband and myself away from here today! Do you hear? I mean it, this very day!
VOYNITSKY. [Wiping his face] Oh! Ah! Oh! All right! I -- Helena, I saw everything! Everything!
HELENA. [In great agitation] Do you hear me? I must leave here this very day!
SEREBRYAKOV, SONYA, MARINA, and TELEGIN come in.
TELEGIN. I am not very well myself, your Excellency. I have been ailing for two days, and my head --
SEREBRYAKOV. Where are the others? I hate this house. It is a regular labyrinth. Every one is always scattered through the twenty-six enormous rooms; one never can find a soul. [Rings] Ask my wife and Madame Voitskaya to come here!
HELENA. I'm here already.
SEREBRYAKOV. Please, all of you, sit down.
SONYA. [Goes up to HELENA and asks anxiously] What did he say?
HELENA. I'll tell you later.
SONYA. You're trembling, aren't you. [Looking quickly and inquiringly into her face] I understand; he said he wouldn't come here any more. [A pause] Tell me, did he?
HELENA nods.
SEREBRYAKOV. [To TELEGIN] One can, after all, become reconciled to being an invalid, but not to this country life. The ways of it stick in my throat and I feel exactly as if I had been whirled off the earth and landed on a strange planet. Please be seated, ladies and gentlemen. Sonya! [SONYA does not hear. She is standing with her head bowed sadly forward on her breast] Sonya! [A pause] She does not hear me. [To MARINA] Sit down too, Nanny. [MARINA sits down and begins to knit her stocking] I crave your indulgence, ladies and gentlemen; hang your ears, if I may say so, on the peg of attention. [He laughs.]
