The Live Corpse

Protásov's[1] flat in Moscow. The scene represents a small dining-room.

Anna Pávlovna, a stout grey-haired lady, tightly laced, is sitting alone at the tea-table on which is a samovár. Enter nurse, carrying a teapot.

NURSE. May I have a little hot water, ma'am?

NURSE. He's restless.… There's nothing worse than for a lady to nurse her baby herself! She has her troubles, and the child must suffer. What can her milk be like, when she lies awake crying all night?

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. But she seems quieter now.

NURSE. Quiet, indeed! It makes one ill to see her. She's been writing something, and crying.

SÁSHA [to Nurse] Lisa is looking for you.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Nurse says she keeps on crying.… Why can't she control herself?

SÁSHA. Well really, mother, you are amazing!… A 234woman has left her husband, her child's father, and you expect her to be calm!

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Well, not calm … But what's done is done! If I, her mother, not only allowed my daughter to leave her husband, but am even glad she has done it, that shows he deserved it. One ought to rejoice, not to grieve, at the chance of freeing oneself from such a bad man!

SÁSHA. Mother, why say such things? You know it's not true! He's not bad—but on the contrary, he's a wonderful man, in spite of his weaknesses.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Yes indeed, a “wonderful” man—as soon as he has money in his pocket—his own or other people's.…

SÁSHA. Mother! He has never taken other people's!